Orange UMA & Carphone warehouse

jamesb1239

bubblesmoney wrote: »

Can you piggy back on any WiFi signal as long as you know the security code for the WiFiand not just your home WiFi.

Yup, any WiFi regardless of where it is. Supposedly allows you to use your phone abroad if you can find a wifi hotspot at UK rates, but dont quote me on that as I havent tried it

bubblesmoney

jamesb1239 wrote: »

Yup, any WiFi regardless of where it is. Supposedly allows you to use your phone abroad if you can find a wifi hotspot at UK rates, but dont quote me on that as I havent tried it

yes i know, i did quite a bit of reading on this topic last night on the crashberry forums which covered this issue in detail. found the explanation you posted as well about the codes / workarounds for making UMA work on a non orange issued blackberry on those forums.

but still not so sure about UK rates for piggybacking on wifi abroad as there were some conflicting posts on this issue.

davesnapeuk

Well, credit to Carphone Warehouse in Hull, I calmly explained the situation that I'd only asked for 1 feature and that was UMA. The handset supplied doesn't support that and so they may as well has given me an empty box.
The manager immediately said that there had been a flurry of emails about this in CPW a couple of weeks ago but they obviously hadn't got down to his staff yet (I didn't ask why, as the manager, he hadn't made them aware). He duly apologised, and arranged for the original salesman to contact orange and have my upgrade date reset so that I can call Orange direct tomorrow and order a UMA compatible Blackberry 9700.
The original salesman claimed to be unaware that CPW blackberry's were generic and did not support UMA but was grateful for me highlighting it to him and duly apologised for the inconvenience.
All in all, a happy end (albeit another days wait) and then I'm off to the Orange shop tomorrow to get another new Blackberry that does support UMA.

For anyone who's read up on UMA as a result of my original post, it's fantastic! I live in North Wales and also work in a village in Hull with virtually no Orange signal. I have my home wifi and business wifi (oh, and the pubs of course!) set as WIFI networks and the Blackberry connects to them when they're in range. As soon as one of my 'known' networks are in range the Blackberry changes from using the normal mobile network to using UMA without dropping the call or any noticable service interruption. It provides text, voice, mms etc. Any minutes used on UMA comes out of your standard service plan as though you're on their mobile network.

I have used the phone, but not UMA, abroad. I didn't dare connect to a network abroad to test whether it costs more/less but as data charges are high abroad then I suspect what you save on calls, you may more than make up for in data charges.

naywansteepanuf

thanks for those instructions worked fine but I still cannot connect as I get the "ISP or wireless network error" in the WiFi (UMA) disgnostics?

Haven't rung orange yet - this is for an 8900 phone (bought from CPW) - i already have an 8120 which connects via UMA no problem every time (same router) - interestingly it took ages to sort the UMA initially when I got the 8120 - not many in Orange support had even head of it! (this is going back a couple of years though)

Any further pointers James?

naywansteepanuf

resolved partially - put my 8120 SIM in the 8900 - UMA straight away - swapped SIMs back and yes working

However, it is sporadic and nowhere near as reliable as the 8120 UMA connection

Spoke to Orange who ran some diagnostics (so they said) which verified a faulty handset quote "if is was an orange branded phone from Orange we would now be sending you a new one...". The guy I spoke to also said the "genuine orange" Blackberrys have other features specific to the Orange network - he tentatively suggested I cancel the contract with CPW under the distance selling rules and buy direct from Orange

CPW have been less than impressive (okay crap) right for the start whereas I must say that Orange customer service so far has been very good indeed

Toe-Jam

bubblesmoney wrote: »

yes i know, i did quite a bit of reading on this topic last night on the crashberry forums which covered this issue in detail. found the explanation you posted as well about the codes / workarounds for making UMA work on a non orange issued blackberry on those forums.

but still not so sure about UK rates for piggybacking on wifi abroad as there were some conflicting posts on this issue.

It works for me in the Republic of Ireland it just behaves like its in the UK, and comes out of the bundle of minutes I have.

But I think if the server is able to work out where you are from your IP address it will block it, so places like America and such may be blocked.

It doesn't work on wifi hotspots, not even in the UK.