UMA Today Magazine: Services Delivered Page 30

COVER STORY

(continued from p. 9)

Like the other service plans, unico

offers unlimited calling to fixed lines in Italy, as well
as other Telecom Italia Mobile subscribers for a flat
monthly rate of 15, thus working to accelerate fixed-
mobile substitution.

In a market with a high percentage of pre-paid

subscribers, Telecom Italia is positioning unico
service as an attractive offer to convert subscribers
to post-paid contracts.

British Telecom :

British Telecom (BT) announced Fusion, the

original UMA service, in September 2005, a full
year before any other service offers entered the
market. Winner of the 2006 World Communications
Award for Best New Service, Fusion was called "the
original fixed-mobile service -- sparking a wave of
follow-on FMC services."

BT is an anomaly in the UMA service space because

it's a fixed-line operator with an MVNO, rather than
having an integrated mobile network. The Fusion
service plan also reflects BT's goal of trying to keep
mobile minutes on the fixed network. Consequently,
Fusion requires a BT fixed line, DSL service and a
Fusion (Wi-Fi or Bluetooth) access point.

Because UMA is also a mobile service, it places

BT into the cut-throat mobile business in the UK.
With four service plans ranging from 100 to 400
minutes of calling over the UMA network, plus
a per-minute fee for mobile calling, the Fusion
service is one of the more expensive service plans
on the market today.

concLUSIon

After reviewing the UMA-

based service plans available on the market today,
it's clear that operators are looking to drive FMS by
pricing in-home calling at a single, flat rate. Over
time, it is likely this rate will approach zero and
in-home calling will simply be a unique feature
of a mobile operator's consumer voice tariff.

Another observation is that simplicity is key. A

single flat rate for all calls from the home over Wi-Fi
is a straightforward service offer which consumers
can quickly understand, and more importantly,
decide if the plan is a good value for them.

In the future, UMA data tariffs will become more

prevalent. Telia set the stage with unlimited packet
service access when connected over Wi-Fi, will
others follow their lead? For most operators, the
focus on delivering value-added data products is in
selling the content, not charging for the per kilobyte
transport costs. Offering consumers low-cost/no-
cost unlimited access to broadband data will certainly
increase the take-rates of premium on and off-deck
ringtones, games and other content.

Today, operators are focused on using UMA to

deliver low-cost voice calling, both to accelerate
FMS and to counter the VoIP threat. For subscribers,
UMA-based services offer strong incentives to make
the mobile phone the only phone. What is clear is
that UMA services have been delivered to the market,
and they are here to stay.

UMA ToDAY

SPRING 2007

[Mobile/Wi-Fi convergence]
is one of the major directions
in wireless. The concept is
being able to unify all of your
communications into a single
form factor where everything
works the same. In concept,
that's where we want to go.

craig Mathias, principal analyst with the

Farpoint Group