What isn’t there to love about T-Mobiles UMA VoIP Wi-Fi solution? Like mini-bar cashews and a nice upgrade to business class, T-Mobile knows what makes travelers happy, especially international financiers with a Spitzerian mistress in every port and a burgeoning Falstaffian gut. UMA to an international traveler is like finding a great restaurant in the hotel: you could get a new SIM card, go wander the world a bit, but why worry when you have everything you need in the lobby.
Add UMA — which basically lets you make and receive calls over any Wi-Fi connection anywhere in the world for local rates — to a Blackberry 8820 and you are basically in heaven.
First, who isn’t this new Blackberry 8820 for? It’s not for the local kids who rarely leave their cubicles. T-Mobile’s Hotspot@Home solution costs $9.99 a month and allows you to make free nationwide calls over Wi-Fi. This ideally means @Home but this also can mean @theCasbah or @aNiceHotelinGreece, which is the dirty little secret of this plan: you can call home or the office from anywhere in the world for free. If you’re in an area without strong GSM/T-Mobile coverage and you’re a die-hard T-Mo user or locked in by the IT department, Hotspot@Home is a lifesaver — but if you’re not brand sensitive already probably using a competing CDMA phone in this case, making the point moot. I’ve never had trouble with T-Mo in New York or anywhere else in the US, but I know some folks are in dead zones and, as such, should probably look elsewhere. While UMA is cool, its might not be a strong enough add-on to warrant paying $9.99 while you’re in your McMansion outside of Phoenix.
If you travel, get it. GSM is the lingua franca of the rest of the world and Verizon and Sprint pay their respects to this vaunted standard by adding SIM cards to some of their phones (see the Samsung Ace) and quivering as they wait for GSM to eventually bulldoze their infrastructure; why, friends do you think Sprint loves them some WiMAX?
The 8820 is a standard Blackberry messaging phone with an emphasis on messaging. It is larger than the similarly Wi-Fi adept Curve and has a large, easy to tap keyboard. The keys are uniquely shaped to ensure you don’t dumbthumb your important messages.
International email costs $19.99 a month and if you’re a Blackberry hound, its well worth it. The phone includes all of the standard Blackberry fare along with MyFaves, which is displayed prominently on the front page of the phone. Web browsing is excellent over Wi-Fi and acceptable over GPRS, as was expected.
The phone does have GPS which uses Blackberry maps and Telenav for location and directions and includes a microSD slot and media playback features, for those so inclined. It also supports quad-band GSM, making it great for roaming.
Overall the 8820 is a strong entrant in the Blackberry race and the traveler’s best friend.
great review. One clarification..? to make/receive calls in the wi-fi mode is it necessary to hv the tmo-hotspot-@home service. = Thanks
It works with any hotspot, not just T-Mo’s
you don’t need the add-on, but that leaves you then also without the unlimited calling.
I have the 8320 – love it – recommend it to anyone who is on T-Mo….
Big downside — when you leave your house — the WIFI won’t travel with you.
Beware – T-Mobile’s footprint is small. By the time you add up the $ 9.99 Hotspot @Home and messaging plans — Sprint’s $99 all in one (includes BIS but NOT BES) is probably a better deal.
Beware #2 – The WIFI Net Browsing is not any faster than regular EDGE — at least not in my book…
It’s amazing after that all this time, the “reviewers” keep getting it wrong: You DO NOT need to purchase the $9.99 H@H add-on.
If you don’t have the add-on, minutes spent talking over wi-fi come out of your monthly plan, i.e. no unlimited calling.
>>Add UMA — which basically lets you make and receive calls over any Wi-Fi connection anywhere in the world for local rates — to a Blackberry 8820 and you are basically in heaven.
I’m stumped.
What part of this did they get wrong? (and yes I know how the H@H works as I’ve been using an 8320 for 6 months). I don’t see where he claimed you had to enroll in a plan to use H@H — the statement “local rates” seems to imply it would come out of your bucket of minutes.
For clarification:
1. If you have a UMA capable phone on T-Mobile – you do NOT have to buy the $9.99 Hotspot @ Home — if you don’t buy the plan all of your WIFI /UMA minutes come out of your monthly bucket.
2. If you buy the Hotspot @ Home – you get free unlimited minutes so long as you are hooked up to ANY WIFI.
3. The T-Mobile devices will use Starbucks (and any other T-Mobile Hotspot) for free and rule #’s 1 and 2 above apply.
I just wanted to let everyone know that Tmobile rocks They are way ahead of the curve and with the current 3g roll out they are set to take over the world.
Cheida R Is so hot. But not has hot as this phone. I mean come on, what more do you need, wifi calling, gps, the good tmobile service. Wow this phone is the best phone ever.
Down side, it doesn’t have a camera, but hey this phone can get into places other blackberry’s cannot. e.g. The court Room.
Tmobile has the best training in the business I hear that Scott in the training department is the best trainer alive. We love UMA.
ps, You should let us out early. Yeah.
Uh, guys? I’ve been told by multiple reps that you *DO* need the $9.99 HotSpot@Home add-on feature to have unlimited minutes over UMA. Unless this has changed in the pat 30 days, I would be very careful about that.
If you want UNLIMITED then you do in fact need to have the $9.99 Hotspot Plan
You can however make use of the UMA service and if you are not on the Hotspot plan, it still works but your minutes are treated like regular cellular minutes — meaning they come out of your plan minutes.
I was wondering if the GPS capabity is restricted to just specific apps (Telenav and Blackberry Maps) or whether it works with other GPS apps. I know this was a big deal with other carrier’s versions – anyone have any first hand knowledge that other apps work?
The GPS works with any app, not just what’s built in or whatever walled-garden crap your provider decides to throw at you *cough*Verizon*cough*.
I just order the Blackberry 8820 last night and awaiting shipment. I was told by the Customer Srevice rep that T-Mobile doesn’t suppoert the built in GPS. Can anyone clear this up for me. Also she told me I had pat $19.99 monthly in order to use the internet service. I’m puzzled and want some amswers from the people who have this phone before I make a decision to keep it.
SORRY ABOUT THE TYPOS
This is the most horrible phone EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It decides what to do with its settings by itself, so dont be surprised if random stuff changes on it. it is posessed. This is the second one i got because the first was acting weired and my friend’s blackberry does the same thing. This is not a smart phone, its a stupid phone. Dont waste your money on this worthless item. on a scale of 1-10 I would rate it at 1.
I agree. I already broke mine!!! It was worth it!
its always nice when a loser replies to his own messages.
I’ve had the 8820 since it came out, and love it. Great battery life, great voice quality, great reception.
A coupla notes:
Yes, it’ll do the voice-over-wiFi trick without any special service added, it’s a feature native to the phone. The $9.99 Talk Unlimited add-on is a billing thing, so the minutes used during voice-over-wiFi doesn’t count as airtime.
Voice-over-wiFi is a killer feature for me as I’m often in buildings with really poor cell service but excellent WiFi. Nobody else’s cell phone is reliable, mine is rock-solid with excellent sound quality! Woohoo T-Mo!
Yes, like every other smartphone the 8820 require a data service package to get internet service over the phone network. T-Mo offers two plans: Email-only for $9.99/month or unlimited web browsing & email for $19.99/month. Without one of these you can only web-browse when connected to a WiFi router.
The phone can connect to pretty much any 802.11b/g router. If it’s an open one just add it to your list of routers to auto-connect to. If it is a T-Mobile hotspot one it’ll do it automagically (Starbucks (for years to come), some airports, some hotels, etc.) For a locked router just enter the password and you’re good to go.
The GPS is great. Yesterday I was out hiking, had a list of boulders in a set of words that had sayings carved on ‘em. With the coordinates I was able to hike to each one without problem. Also used the GPS to record my travels that day, so when I got home I was able to use the time-stamped GPS log to ‘geo-tag’ the time-stamped photos I’d taken, now I’ve got a map with photos on it, know which boulder was where. (Also now can search my photos by the town they were taken in!)
I purchased “Blackberry Locator” for a few bucks. When my 8820 sees an email with a special word in the subject it’ll now go into complete spaz-out; ringing it’s alarm, blinking the screen & LED, emailing me a map of where it is located. Great for finding a misplaced phone!
Finally, the clincher for me was the battery life. I leave the WiFi on, Bluetooth on, use both constantly (WiFi for calls, Bluetooth connects to my car & headset for music, podcasted radio shows & phone calls), and this phone holds up like a champ! Forget the camera, I’ve got a real digital camera for that, it is battery life that so many smartphones fall down on! I also have an iPhone, sweet toy but it’s dead by afternoon.
The UMA will work regardless if you have a 9.99 @home plan. The only difference is when you have the plan, you are not using your minutes and without the plan you get crystal clear wifi calls but it uses your minutes. Great feature if you have terrible service inside your house.
i’m thinking about buying one. how is the internet browsing speed and ease of use when not connected to wi-fi?
Thanks,
Browsing & ease of use are identical to every other current Blackberry. The 8820 keyboard is a bit bigger, which many of us appreciate. Beyond that RIM does an admirable job of keeping things consistent (consistently excellent!)
Falstaffian? I bet maybe one other person knew who you were talking about…