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Nokia, Kineto to Work on Wireless Collaboration
By DAVID SIMS
TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist
Kineto has agreed to supply its Unlicensed Mobile Access Network Controller as part of Nokia's fixed-mobile convergence network solution, officials at both companies say.
Kineto Wireless, which contributed to the development of and supplies UMA technology, is announcing an agreement to "address the area of convergence between fixed and mobile networks and services in selected key customer cases." The companies, currently engaged in UMA trials with major operators, will continue to collaborate on future network trials.
Under the terms of the agreement, Nokia will incorporate Kineto's UMA Network Controller into its network convergence products for wireline and wireless operators. This is seen by Nokia as complementing other elements of their end-to-end network convergence offerings, including the Nokia Unified Core Network for common service machinery and multimedia services as well as their popular mobile devices.
This past February Kineto and Philips Electronics announced a partnership to put UMA in Philips’ rather grandly-named Nexperia Wi-Fi-enabled Cellular Systems Solutions, to let cell phones roam voice, data and multi-media calls between conventional cellular networks and WLAN access points at home, in the office and public hot spots.
These calls are transferred automatically back and forth, depending on whether the user is in range of the access point or not, which makes it easy for consumers to always be on the fastest or lowest cost network. UMA Technology, basically, provides an alternative access to GSM and GPRS core network services via IP-based broadband connections.
“When users come into range of a WLAN access point, UMA enabled mobile phones will allow them to automatically switch over from a cellular network without interruptions,” Mario Rivas, executive vice president Communications Businesses, Philips Semiconductors explained.
UMA, 3rd Generation Partnership Program standard, allows the handoff of mobile voice and data from a wide area cellular network to a wireless local area network. The UMA standard defines how mobile operators can turn home, office and public wireless LANs into extensions of their cellular networks.
In operator terms, using UMA lets them deliver high-performance, low-cost mobile voice, data and IMS services to subscribers over the broadband Wi-Fi access networks, increasing mobile service usage while decreasing their costs.
Rick Gilbert, president and CEO of Kineto claimed the "rapid adoption" of UMA as a 3GPP standard for cellular/Wi-Fi convergence is increasing the demand for UMA products and services from operators.
Nokia had previously announced that Finnish operator Saunalahti will deploy a number of Nokia's convergence products, including UMA technology from Kineto, to offer services like VoIP and multimedia to both mobile and fixed telephony customers.
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David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles by David Sims, please visit:
http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100005&nm=David%20Sims
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