UMA Today Magazine: Services Delivered Page 13

2006, we reorganized our product delivery groups and
then consolidated into the single Orange brand.

UMA is a strategic technology for Orange, as it

brings together the network assets of Orange. And
our unik dual-mode handset service is the first of
many steps in the company's convergence strategy.

As far as IMS, we are committed to it for

consolidating our application and service delivery
platforms in the longer term. But that doesn't affect
our UMA plans, as we see UMA and IMS working
together in the network. Because UMA is an access
technology, it will be used to deliver IMS-based
services over broadband.

Are you using a unik phone yourself?

I am using it, and my first impression was very

straightforward. I would say it is transparent
from the user point of view, easy to use, and I got
what I expected.

Tell us about your experiences to date with
UMA. Is it meeting your expectations?

So far, we are quite pleased with UMA. As one of

my British colleagues remarked, "UMA is nice
because it actually does what it says on the tin."

The technology itself is quite stable. And the

vendors have proven interoperability between
devices and the network.

Also, we've overcome many initial concerns about

regulatory and safety issues. Because it actually is a
RAN solution, many of these issues are solved by the
existing mobile network.

What do you think UMA offers your subscribers?

UMA offers our subscribers

a very simple value
proposition. It's the same
mobile services they know
and love... they just work
better and cost less when at

home. And this fits nicely into our overall strategy
at Orange of helping subscribers to enhance and
simplify their lives, both at home and at work.

Lately there have been announcements about
UMA-enabled femtocells, terminal adaptors or
even softmobile clients. How do you see these
technologies fitting into the unik service plan?

Yes, well, with UMA equipment now installed in our

core network, it's safe to say Orange will be looking for
ways to leverage it to provide more services.

Femtocells are something mobile operators have

been interested in for a long time. 3G service
coverage is still not where we want it to be, and
femtocells are a great way to improve customer
satisfaction.

And I have been following discussions about

softmobiles in the industry. Applications which
deliver convergence and simplify our subscribers'
lives are always interesting.

What is the future of unik?

[laughs] First we must get it commercially available

in Spain. Beyond that, unik provides the basis
for delivering new applications and content to
subscribers when connected to broadband at home.
Unik is the first application from the NeXT initiative
because it pulls together the different technologies
into a single user experience.

SPRING 2007

UMA ToDAY