CREATING CONVERGENCE WITH UMA

Ultimately, Kineto's Shaw pushes aside the issue of how many vendors make a market by reiterating the obvious carrier interest in UMA. “Handsets don't come into existence unless they are operator-driven,” he said. “The funny thing about UMA is that there is no vendor issue at this point — mobile operators want it, and they will make it happen.” (One of the funnier things may be that two of the first carriers — BT and Saunalahti — committing to UMA deployment actually are fixed wireline operators doing so through new wireless mobile virtual network operator agreements.)

As backers of UMA look to further commercialize the technology in the year ahead, they also will confront some of the other technology issues that face such potentially disruptive innovations.

One of those has to do with the industry's ability to ensure secure usage for a dual-mode service that in part makes use of unlicensed wireless spectrum, something that an industry primarily run on licensed spectrum traditionally has feared. Traditional wireless security gateway vendors have begun to tackle that issue, which is expected to be most important for corporate enterprises looking at allowing their employees to use the dual-mode UMA devices.

Cam Cullen, vice president of product management at Reefpoint, a security vendor, said the company's just-announced UMA Security Gateway encapsulates UMA calls and signaling in IPsec tunnels for secure IP transport. The gateway can support up to half a million simultaneous IP connections. “When you get down to it, there aren't going to be a lot of people who want to adopt this if a carrier can't ensure some level of security,” Cullen said.

Reefpoint's gateway is deployed adjacent to a SIP gateway in the network, but on the handset side, companies like Symantec also are working on client security solutions. “With voice over IP, voice becomes data packets, and those can be more easily intercepted,” said Sarah Hicks, vice president of strategic opportunities at Symantec. “That requires higher forms of authorization. This is definitely something on our radar.”