UMA's purpose is to make hand-off from a cellular to Wi-Fi-based IP network work seamlessly when you've got a dual-mode handset. It is a technology Kineto has long pushed with partners, and it recently became part of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) cellular specifications.

The goal of UMA is to let consumers roam between their cellular networks and the wireless LANs in their homes and offices with phones and smartphones that support both cellular and Wi-Fi wireless technologies.

The two companies say they're performing UMA trials with major operators now using Kineto's UMA controller in Nokia equipment. It is not clear whether or not Nokia's current lineup of smartphones that support both cellular and Wi-Fi communications—such as the 9500 communicator—can be turned into seamlessly switching dual-mode handsets.

From a conversation we had with Nokia executives back at the CTIA Wireless trade show in New Orleans last spring, we suspect this capability won't necessarily be backwards compatible. That means consumers may have to wait for the cell phone giant’s next generation of Wi-Fi/cellular handsets.

Kineto is also working with Motorola.

More on UMA
Last week, Frost & Sullivan announced that the voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) market is poised for growth starting this year. In Europe alone, the market is projected to jump from 6.6 million Euros in 2004 to 1.99 billion Euros by 2010.

The research firm said a driver of this is the 14 member companies— Alcatel, AT&T, BT, Cingular, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, Nortel Networks, O2, Rogers Wireless, Siemens, Sony Ericsson, and T-Mobile USA— that published the UMA specification a little less than a year ago.

For end-users, the UMA experience should be seamless because it leverages the same mechanisms used in today's cellular networks. But instead of calls be handed from base station to base station, as when you are driving on a highway, they are handed off between an outdoor network and a wireless LAN.

A report from Alexander Resources says that the mobile operators are starting to feel the heat from VoWLAN and will probably reduce cellular service prices. Alexander says the move to new 3G (like EV-DO and UMTS) can't happen fast enough for the carriers, who could take a hit if deployments take too long.

Carriers could conceivably benefit from this system, however. As operators may well deliver the same services—voice, data, SMS, downloads, etc. —over another type of network, Wi-Fi, in parallel with their traditional cellular networks.

To compete with VoIP services, operators might offer limited or unlimited WLAN access for a fixed rate of anywhere from $5 to $20 a month on top of their usual mobile access fees.