Texas Instruments (TI) is embedding support for Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) (via the UMA client from Kineto Wireless) into its OMAP-Vox platform. UMA is a fixed-mobile convergence technology that lets users switch from unlicensed Wi-Fi to licensed cellular/3G connections and back again on voice and data calls.

Dual-mode phones that support GSM/GPRS/EDGE and Wi-Fi using TI's platform will be able to take advantage of UMA from carriers to get instant hand-off from one network to another. The only other chip vendor Kineto has worked with to date is NXP, formerly Philips Semiconductor.

With UMA, cellular/Wi-Fi handsets can integrate seamlessly and with minimal impact into a wireless carriers existing core network infrastructure, while delivering better and more consistent service to end-users because calls can be carried over a WLAN when cellular service isn't available. The technology also promises to deliver service over the type of network (cellular or Wi-Fi) that is cheapest and most available at any given moment.

T-Mobile is he first mobile operator in the U.S. to deliver a dual-mode service that allows users to make cellular and Wi-Fi calls from the same handset. So a user can be on a cellular call, using the minutes from their mobile plan, but when they walk into their home or in range of a T-Mobile hotspot, the call is automatically moved over to Wi-Fi; saving those minutes, without interruption.

Called T-Mobile HotSpot @Home, the service, which costs $20 a month, is available now in the Seattle on a trial basis. It delivers unlimited voice over Wi-Fi calls from T-Mobile's 7,000 hotspots and your home—through a Wi-Fi access point connected to your broadband Internet service.

T-Mobile offers a router for $50 that is free after a mail-in rebate. The service will work with any router, so it is not necessary buy T-Mobile's if you already own one. cell phones do not work well or at all.