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In the very early days of our marriage, when Catherine and I were just starting our family, our cordless phone broke. Too proud to buy a corded phone, and too broke to buy the then very expensive cordless phone, we opted for an upgrade to our fledgling cell phone plan. Yes, I know sounder financial decisions could have been made, but one is not thinking clearly when they are up all night with a newborn.

Upon entering the now defunct GTE Wireless (Verizon Wireless) store I was immediately drawn to the combo cordless phone / cell phone. This revolutionary device had a base station that plugged into your land line. It sat on the base station much like a cordless phone and charged. However, once the phone was out of range of the base station it converted its frequency and then became your cell phone. You have to remember that this was in the mid-90’s when people still called your home first to find you.

Catherine and I have had many cell phones over the years, probably more than most, but I remember this one so well because it was so ingenious. The phone was incredible. As long as you remembered where you put it, this single phone worked for all of your phone numbers. You did not carry multiple devices around your home and wonder which one was ringing, you simply answered the one phone for everything. I remember thinking to myself, “every phone in the world will be like this one day.” Well of course that did not happen… until I came across this article.

It seems that T-Mobile has picked up this idea from so many eons ago and reworked it for the 21st century. in September they will be launching trials for a new service, UMA, which will allow cell phone users to go home to their houses and use their cell phones on their WiFi networks - for a small fee. Imagine being able to speak unhindered via your home WiFi network and never consider how many minutes you might be using. This capability would extend to any public WiFi hotspot on the Internet. This strategy makes a lot of sense for T-Mobile, as they are currently operating one of the larger public WiFi networks in the country. This strategy allows them to bring value added services to their current customer base while attracting new customers at a growing rate.

The challenge will be making the technology work seamlessly. I will be excited to watch the progress of this in the industry and see how competitors follow.

More information here.