The two Seoul-based manufacturers will include the Kineto technology in future cellular handsets for use in UMA networks. The most high-profile of these is currently the BT Fusion offering in the UK, whereby a single mobile phone can be used as a cellphone when out and about but a fixed-line cordless phone when at home, communicating with a special WiFi access point for the purpose.
The contracts are particularly good news for Milpitas, California-based Kineto as some market observers have cast doubts on UMA’s longevity in the face of broader carrier network overhauls such as BT’s 21CN project, where the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) going into the so-called i-Nodes will effectively supersede UMA as an offering for fixed-mobile convergence (FMC). One pundit is the UK went so far as to suggest the UMA is dead.
Still, it enjoys considerable currency with carriers wanting to offer some degree of FMC now, on their existing networks, such that two leading mobile phone manufacturers from Korea are buying into the technology with the licensing agreements.
Samsung is on a path of aggressive acquisition of market share in Europe, and indeed is vying for third place worldwide with Motorola. LG is coming from behind, but has introduced some innovative handset designs in an effort to catch up outside its home market.
