Orange - BlackBerry 9700 UMA service crap at peak times

[stunned_monkey]

Okay, for those who don't know, UMA is a service that allows a small number of mobiles with the feature to use the WiFi connection at home to make and receive calls (talking over the web to servers at Orange). It's a fantastic service for those who can make it work in areas where there is no mobile coverage.

 

I've just dropped an email to Orange on their executive orifice email address (dunno if it's still active), but I wanted to share it here in case anyone else wanders onto this thread with the same problem: Put simply UMA is connected but unuseable at peak times

 

Hi There,

 

I'm writing because of being sent around in circles between the teams supporting both mobile and broadband because we have a problem that straddles both.

 

My partner and I both have orange mobiles. The numbers are:

xxxxx xxxxxx (me )

xxxxx xxxxxx ('er indoors)

 

We have a serious issue with the broadband attached to 'er account.

 

We live in an area with no mobile coverage and were being killed with the phone bills from BT. So we decided to lump everything together, take out new Orange contracts on BlackBerry 9700's with UMA capability, and for 'er to sign over the phone line and broadband account to Orange in 'er name. The land line number is xxxxx xxxxxx

 

A point to note is that the phones arrived almost immediately and we successfully connected them over the BT broadband for several weeks. This included blissfully clear UMA connections and the ability to use our mobiles at home.

 

As soon as the Orange broadband took over, this all changed.

 

The speeds are apparently down on the BT capacity, though not disasterous, but UMA is unuseable in the early evenings and most of the weekend. It's connected and active but impossible to sustain a conversation on it, defeating the point of having it in the first place. It's very much as though it's dreadful mobile coverage (audio drop-outs, sounding like a dalek), except that the call never actually drops. Crucially the UMA connection requires a very modest data rate, but it MUST be constant, there is no "buffer".

 

I'd like to repeat that it worked fine until we changed over to the Orange broadband (physically the same BT line).

 

Because this is an issue with our BlackBerry's use of the WiFi connection, it's hell to find anyone to take ownership of the problem. The mobile people want to blame the broadband side (I think they're right) and the broadband team keep wanting to blame the mobile. On one phone call, I was transferred between both sides twice before hanging up in frustration while being asked (for a second time) to explain that yes, my phone is successfully connected to the WiFi and the connection is indeed working, otherwise how could I be using it to talk to you right now...? (via UMA during the day when it does work)

 

Your broadband technical people have no idea what UMA is.

 

I have run wireless speed checks, I've checked for channel interference, I've manually reassigned channels. I even went on-line to find an old Livebox on ebay so I could rule out the router. There're only 3 other wireless networks in range. SNR is healthy. The BlackBerry reports a 48Mbit speed (6Mb) I haven't seen the wired speed go above 8Mb despite the fact that it's supposed to be a 20Mb line.

 

I'm going to draw on my rusty experience as a network engineer for Cable & Wireless and suggest that the Orange connection is being passed via a local multiplexer (mux), such that fast speeds can be maintained but only in bursts, not as a continuous stream. Thus data can still be transferred pretty rapidly, but a requirement for a constant data rate (even a low one) falls on its face when the mux is busy at peak times.

 

Please can you do something to help sort this out?

 

Stunned Monkey

[stunned_monkey]

Still getting no further with this problem, so I shot a video of theproblem (the notes on YouTube also list our woes). Emails are going unanswered, callbacks are not being made, being handed back between mobile and broadband teams like a game of ping pong. Fed up. I've been an Orange account holder singe 1996 and have never had any issues before. Sort this out, guys!!!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4z7Kpf66Fc

[locutus]

Maybe PM this user :- Orange-Response

[stunned_monkey]

Thanks - the customer service email address currently doesn't work and UMA appears to struggle from my Mum's as well.

[hillards]

Just to echo that a lot of support people at Orange don't have a clue what UMA is, or that it's something they actually provide.

 

My mobile is on Orange, it's a Nokia 6301, yes, it is a UMA phone. At my office I have Eclipse Internet for broadband and the WiFi is enabled for use with the phone. It works sometimes, sometimes it does not. It's better on answering an incoming call, as I usually stay connected, but when I dial out I often lose the call before it's even connected.

 

Orange say it's not their problem, usually that's because the person I'm talking to has no clue about UMA and I take great delight in asking them to tell me what UMA stands for. One young lady came back with the correct term 'Unlicensed Mobile Access ' and then tried to tell me that I needed a license for it!

 

Eclipse just claim that they don't support UMA (yet it works, sometimes).

 

I have used the email address [email protected] for Jonathan myself in the past, he may not reply straight away, but has been more than useful to me. You have to put ‘Jonathan Orange Response' as the subject of your email to reach him.

 

Keep at 'em

[Trevor Preece]

Well I've lost UMA using my LG GT505 for about a week now. Hitherto it worked almost permanently from about 6 wi-fi sites locally. Then nothing. Can connect to all of the routers fine. But no green for UMA. Rang Orange and the "advisor" had to refer to someone else for every question. All I got is that they don't maintain UMA, and it's not a guaranteed service. In other words "go away and suffer it". I use Eclipse and generally it's fine, and the helpdesk is excellent. But mine is the only router using Eclipse. The others are not. But they worked. Now they don't. And I've not changed anything on my phone. Why have a facility like UMA (VOIP) if it's intermittent? I rely on it West Cumbria.

[stunned_monkey]

I don't know what it's like on other phones, but the Blackberry had real trouble with hooking up to UMA, even when on an active network. I worked out the problem for myself that it didn't like having multiple networks set up. As soon as I delete everything but the network I'm on, UMA srings to life.

 

Given that the only phones supportign UMA now are BlackBerries I suspect it's a service they wish they'd never offered.

 

At least our setup prompts us when there's an answerphone and texting works fine.

[nick268]

Well I've lost UMA using my LG GT505 for about a week now. Hitherto it worked almost permanently from about 6 wi-fi sites locally. Then nothing. Can connect to all of the routers fine. But no green for UMA........ And I've not changed anything on my phone....

 

I have a blackberry bold 9700. Connected to BT internet via a Home Hub. It has been fine for months and months but as above it has just stopped working on UMA... Orange customer service couldn't fix it.. BUT I have just signed up to the T mobile Orange sharing thingie.

 

Could that be it?

[stunned_monkey]

Probably but getting through to someone who can confirm and god forbid fix the problem might be tough...