AMSTERDAM, Netherlands-Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. launched a handset equipped with Unlicensed Mobile Access technology in Italy. Samsung’s SGH-P200 phone runs on the Nexperia chip from Royal Philips’ Philips Semiconductor division.
Philips’ Nexperia offering uses the company’s low-power wireless local area network system-in-package that integrates the handset’s baseband, RF transceiver and power amplifier chips and front-end components, according to the company.
UMA is a much-touted Third Generation Partnership Program, or 3GPP, protocol designed to allow seamless roaming from a cellular network to a Wi-Fi hot spot, or WLAN. Thus, it allows operators to move traffic to the lower cost network to better manage their spectrum assets.
In the United States, T-Mobile USA Inc. appears to be the only network operator involved in UMA trials. While T-Mobile USA does not yet have enough spectrum to launch 3G services, the carrier has an extensive Wi-Fi footprint; with UMA, the carrier could extend its reach less expensively than building an equivalent cellular network.
