UMA cheap set up for overseas travel

petkow · 16-12-2010, 12:18

Personally, I can't really recommend UMA or other WIFI reliant methods for most peoples normal roaming needs. I'm not really sure how Snidely manages with it as a complete replacement for a roaming product.

UMA is only any good if you are going to be in one known place for a lengthy period of time where you are sure of having WIFI signal. Its absolutely useless for when you are doing normal travelling or out and about in a city, and you might receive an incoming call at any point. It could perhaps be made to work for instances say when you are doing a foreign assignment and you only shuttle between a Wifi enabled hotel and a Wifi enabled office. If you are relying on UMA for everything, your carrier will always default back to normal roaming when you don't have WIFI coverage.

Perhaps, in Europe and much of Asia there isn't as much of free WIFI as you guys get in North, Central and South America. Here in Europe, even many expensive hotels ask you to pay a ridiculous daily charge for access to their WIFI. This is quite different to when I have travelled in Central and North America, where even the cheapest motels and many restaurants seemed to offer free WIFI. In Europe and Asia, some restaurants and cafes might have WIFI, and there are several private unlocked networks out on the street, but you can't always depend on this as a roaming product.

So you always need a backup plan as well. Personally, I manage with a combination of calls diverted to a SIP softphone in the few instances when I happen to be in WIFI coverage and which automatically diverts to a decent roaming product or local SIM when I am not. Basically I divert my normal cellphone number to a local DID that I acquired for free through a cheap Voip company. This automatically then forwards to a Betamax SIP account (in my case I am using Voipgain) which means the call will ring my WIFI handset if I happen to be in WIFI coverage and logged onto my SIP provider. If not, the call automatically diverts to whatever preasigned local SIM/roaming SIM/local landline number I want it to go to at the cheap Voipgain outgoing call rate.

In my experience this is a far more robust solution than just depending 100% on UMA which is not really intended to be a normal roaming product anyhow.

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	(#11)
petkow (Offline) Senior Member Prepaid Pioneer Posts: 696 Join Date: 01 Aug 2006 Location: Madrid Country:	16-12-2010, 12:18 Personally, I can't really recommend UMA or other WIFI reliant methods for most peoples normal roaming needs. I'm not really sure how Snidely manages with it as a complete replacement for a roaming product. UMA is only any good if you are going to be in one known place for a lengthy period of time where you are sure of having WIFI signal. Its absolutely useless for when you are doing normal travelling or out and about in a city, and you might receive an incoming call at any point. It could perhaps be made to work for instances say when you are doing a foreign assignment and you only shuttle between a Wifi enabled hotel and a Wifi enabled office. If you are relying on UMA for everything, your carrier will always default back to normal roaming when you don't have WIFI coverage. Perhaps, in Europe and much of Asia there isn't as much of free WIFI as you guys get in North, Central and South America. Here in Europe, even many expensive hotels ask you to pay a ridiculous daily charge for access to their WIFI. This is quite different to when I have travelled in Central and North America, where even the cheapest motels and many restaurants seemed to offer free WIFI. In Europe and Asia, some restaurants and cafes might have WIFI, and there are several private unlocked networks out on the street, but you can't always depend on this as a roaming product. So you always need a backup plan as well. Personally, I manage with a combination of calls diverted to a SIP softphone in the few instances when I happen to be in WIFI coverage and which automatically diverts to a decent roaming product or local SIM when I am not. Basically I divert my normal cellphone number to a local DID that I acquired for free through a cheap Voip company. This automatically then forwards to a Betamax SIP account (in my case I am using Voipgain) which means the call will ring my WIFI handset if I happen to be in WIFI coverage and logged onto my SIP provider. If not, the call automatically diverts to whatever preasigned local SIM/roaming SIM/local landline number I want it to go to at the cheap Voipgain outgoing call rate. In my experience this is a far more robust solution than just depending 100% on UMA which is not really intended to be a normal roaming product anyhow.