This week, at the fall CTIA show in Los Angeles, the partners introduced the first fruits of their collaboration: Joint testing documents that ensure mobile technologies like GSM, CDMA, EV-DO and more to work seamlessly with Wi-Fi (especially since more and more products are converging Wi-Fi with these technologies).

According to CTIA, it will help carriers determine the best dual-mode phones to pick for use on their networks. The tests will cover transmit and emitted power and receive sensitivity of products — and those devices have to be Wi-Fi Certified and CTIA certified as well, of course.

"This program is an important step in the development of the convergence market," said CTIA VP of operations Robert Mesirow in a statement. "Without this test program, carriers couldn't be sure that a Wi-Fi/mobile phone would meet their rigorous specifications, but now they will have the data they need to select the handsets best suited for their networks."

This is the first independent source carriers can turn to to test dual-mode handsets, according the organizations. The testing will be conducted by autonomous labs approved by the CTIA and Wi-Fi Alliance.

When PDAStreet spoke to Wi-Fi Alliance managing director Frank Hanzlik in the spring, he emphasized how his organization’s agreement with the CTIA would allow their joint members, the handset makers, to "really go to a common set of labs and get all this testing done in one place, in a much more integrated way. So some of this (the agreement) is an integration piece,” in addition to certifying and determining how well 3G and Wi-Fi work in close proximity.

In-Stat estimates that over 200 million Wi-Fi-enabled mobile handsets will ship by 2010.

Currently, there are many dual-mode trials happening worldwide right. Nokia, for example, has distributed 50 of its Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) 6136 handsets to people in the city of Oulu in Finland, near the polar circle. The idea is to put the Wi-Fi/cellular phones to the test with the town's 300 hot spots.

UMA is one of several competing dual-mode-style fixed-mobile convergence standards that allows GSM carriers to seamlessly handoff calls and data connections between cellular and Wi-Fi networks using voice over IP technology.

T-Mobile USA has been running trials for what should be the first commercial launch of UMA service in this country. The focus, at first, when it launches, is likely to be home users, who would then be able to use their phone (the Nokia 6136 or Samsung SGH-T709) for cellular calls or VoWi-Fi calling over their own home network, without needing a separate service like Skype, which would entail getting a separate phone number.

The rate for the rumored dual-mode service - called T-Mobile-At-Home - will supposedly be a flat fee of $5, far less than the $30 or more per month you would pay for a landline.

While, as we said, T-Mob’s UMA trials seem to focus on the home, it would makes sense for the carrier to find a way to leverage its thousands of hotspots outside customers’ houses soon afterwards. It surely must have that in mind.

Wi-Fi Planet Staff Contributed to this Story