Interview with Kineto Wireless on UMA and Fixed-mobile Convergence

Interview with Kineto Wireless on UMA and Fixed-mobile Convergence

There’s been a lot in the news the past year or so about dual-mode handsets and services as potentially being the next big thing in mobile communications. Understanding the technology behind such claims helps a lot in figuring out what might happen next.

To gain some insight into this industry, TMCnet asked Steve Shaw , AVP of marketing at Kineto Wireless, to provide some background. Kineto Wireless is the developer of UMA, a technology used to enable fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) services and solutions. Kineto works to promote the adoption of UMA as the industry standard for FMC, and also makes UMA-based products (handsets, femotocells, terminal adaptors, softmobiles, etc.).

TMCnet: First up, for those sketchy about the technology, what exactly is UMA and what are its applications?

SS: UMA, or Universal Mobile Access, is a 3GPP standard for delivering mobile services over IP and broadband. UMA provides mobile operators with the opportunity to leverage the cost and performance benefits of broadband, IP, and WiFi to make mobile phones work better and cost less.

The most common application of UMA is dual-mode cellular/WiFi handsets. In this case, a subscriber with a UMA-enabled dual-mode phone uses the regular GSM network outdoors, but seamlessly switches to WiFi when at home or in the office.

To date, T-Mobile’s HotSpot @Home service is the most prominent UMA-based dual-mode phone service offer in the US. Cincinnati Bell also offers a UMA-based service called Home Run. In Europe, UMA-based services are deployed in multiple countries by Orange, Telia Sonera, British Telecom and Telecom Italia.

TMCnet: How would you define ‘fixed-mobile convergence’ (FMC)?

SS: Oddly enough, I define FMC as something much larger that what Kineto is providing. I think FMC is about bringing fixed network services and mobile network services together. FMC is the long term evolution of blending the fixed and mobile service core networks together to offer a single set of services that are delivered to any/all devices and platforms or any access network (fixed and mobile). FMC is the realization of the grand IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) vision for a common IP network.

What Kineto is involved with is only part of an overall FMC strategy. Kineto’s focus is on the mobile side of the network. Kineto and UMA technology is geared toward helping mobile operators extend their existing mobile services (voice, SMS, MMS, etc.) over a fixed broadband IP network to lower costs.

UMA is fundamentally a Radio Access Network (RAN) technology, just like 3G, GSM, or WiMAX. The RAN technology needs to connect devices to the service network. The RAN isn’t a service, it’s a transport.

TMCnet: How does UMA relate to IMS technology?

SS: IMS is a service layer; a platform for rapidly introducing new applications. The IMS services need an IP connection to the device that’s delivering the service, but IMS doesn’t care if that connection runs over 3G, WiMAX or DSL.

UMA, on the other hand, is purely a RAN technology. It is a transport. It provides a secure connection for devices (mobile phones, femtocells, terminal adaptors, laptops, etc.) to connect to the mobile network. UMA supports the transport of circuit services (voice, SMS, etc.) as well as packet services (SIP, IMS, etc.). UMA, like all RAN technologies, really doesn’t know or care what services are being delivered over it, whether they are voice, packet or IMS applications.

The advantage for having an IMS client on a UMA handset is clear: UMA provides seamless mobility for IMS services between WiFi and the GSM radio network. Currently, no other technology can do that.

For example, if a subscriber had a IMS client and SIP VoIP session running on WiFi using a non-UMA dual-mode phone, and the subscriber walked out the front door, the call would fail. There is no technology for delivering mobility between WiFi and the GSM RAN.

In that same example, an IMS client with a SIP/VoIP session running on a UMA phone, would result in the session being seamlessly transferred to the macro RAN network. The SIP VoIP session would move from the WiFi network to a packet session on 3G or EDGE. That’s the power and value of UMA when combined with IMS.

TMCnet: What are femtocells, how are they being used, and how does the technology relate to UMA?

Femtocells are consumer 3G access points typically deployed in subscriber’s homes to improve coverage and data throughput for 3G devices.

One key challenge with femtocell deployments is the standardization of the interface between the femtocell and the mobile network. Operators expect an open, well defined interface so that a robust market for consumer femtocells can develop.

Today, UMA is the only recognized 3GPP standard for connecting femtocells to the mobile core network. UMA provides a secure, scalable, and proven interface for managing the delivery of hundreds of thousands of femtocells.

TMCnet: Kineto recently joined the Femto forum—what is this organization’s mission and how does belonging/participating benefit Kineto, the company’s clients, and Femto Forum’s members?

SS: The Femto Forum is a group of operators and vendors dedicated to the promotion of femtocell services and products.

Kineto’s participation in the Femto Forum is to promote the use of UMA as the standard for femtocell to core network connectivity. Additionally, there are many parallels between a dual-mode handset/WiFi service and a femtocell service. Thus Kineto can offer suggestions for overcoming challenges that the dual-mode market faced when it was starting.

TMCnet: What are some of the most recent partner deals Kineto has entered into?

SS: On Monday, October 8th, Kineto announced availability of its latest UNC software that supports both femtocells and the 3G Iu network interface standard. This is a key step in supporting the trials Kineto’s femtocell solution is supporting now in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Recently Kineto announced a new partnership with NEC. NEC is entering the femtocell market and selected a UMA-based solution as the core of its solution.

Kineto has also announced that it has completed interoperability testing between its UMA Network Controller (UNC) and femtocell access points from Ubiquisys . Ubiquisys has been recognized as the leading vendor in the femtocell market by ABI research.

TMCnet: How would you summarize the current status of UMA in the FMC industry?

SS: UMA is being used to two different applications: femtocell and dual-mode handsets.

For femtocells, the market is hot, but has not gone through the ‘productization’ stage. There are many femtocell trials launching in the forth quarter of 2007 which will serve to separate deployable solutions from trial product. Even Sprint’s ‘launch’ of Airave is really a limited commercial trial available in a few select areas. True commercial deployments of GSM-based femtocells won’t really happen until the second half of 2008.

Having been commercially deployed for more than 2 years now, UMA has been through the productization process. Today, UMA overcomes many hurdles of deploying thousands of femtocells.

For dual-mode handsets, the market continues to accelerate. As of June 2007, Orange had nearly 300,000 UMA-enable devices in the field. T-Mobile’s launch in late June has been very strong. With ten commercially available handsets (up from two at the end of 2006), there is a lot of momentum behind dual-mode services. New products from Nokia, Samsung, and most recently RIM, have really added some excitement to the line-up of UMA-enabled devices.

TMCnet: What are some of the more significant developments in the FMC industry?

SS: I think operators realize the strategic imperative for developing ‘home zone’ service offers like HotSpot @Home and Airave. There is a tremendous amount of competition in the home, where consumers make 40-60 percent of mobile calls.

Sprint and T-Mobile have launched the next generation of home zone offers, where calls are backhauled over the broadband/IP network to lower costs and improve data performance. This is known as Home Zone 2.0.

Home Zone 2.0 services use the public internet to lower costs and some type of local radio technology (WiFi or Femtocell) to provide to deliver a ‘service zone’ in the home or small office. Within this service zone, calls are typically free/unlimited, data transport fees are reduced, and overall coverage is improved. The consumer typically pays a flat fee for a home zone service.

For operators, Home Zone 2.0 services deliver improved performance for mobile services, high through for data applications, and lower costs for service delivery. For consumers, their mobile phone just works better and costs less, regardless of femtocell or WiFi technology.

TMCnet: What do you see as being the future of UMA and femtocells?

SS: UMA is the technology behind Home Zone 2.0, whether that be delivered with dual-mode Wi-Fi handsets or with 3G femtocells. Operators realize that in-home calls and data services are the next battle ground. They can’t win from the macro network; they need to lower costs and to improve performance (coverage, data throughput) to really win the battle for the home.

Home Zone 2.0 services, whether WiFi or femtocell based, are the way mobile operators can address the threat and capitalize on the opportunity for in-home services.

A recent report from Infonetics suggests that the worldwide market for FMC products (controllers, security gateways, and dual-mode phones) will reach $46 billion by 2010.

TMCnet: Anything else people should show about Kineto’s current FMC initiatives?

SS: At the end of the day, UMA is being driven by mobile operators. Some say that Kineto alone is pushing UMA, but the reality is that operators are really pulling UMA forward.

UMA is the only 3GPP standard for a mobile operator to use the Internet to deliver services. In this ultra-competitive market, mobile operators need to lower costs and improve performance, and in the end, that’s what UMA delivers.