[fzfrank]

If you're like me, you're holding off on upgrading to the T-Mobile 9900 until UMA and/or WiFi are available on the device.

Can anyone who knows anything post here? Then anyone who is holding their breath waiting for those features can subscribe to this post.

The last I heard is those features were not active, but would be activated in a future software update.

[NJBlackBerry]

I'm not holding off; mine arrives tomorrow.
T-Mobile Engineering (not someone at a kiosk) told me it would be available in November.

[LunkHead]

Got mine last Friday.. Love it!

Thanks NJ... Will be nice once it rolls out for the 9900
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[ezrunner]

I gotta say I've heard the same as NJ and not from a sales rep
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[Ade]

unfortunately i have to wait, uma is d only way i survive in my house... i was wondering is there a way to manually configure the uma like we did for the torch...

[John Clark]

Just a stab in the dark here...

Lately I've had issues with the handoff from UMA to 3G or EDGE. It doesn't work on either my wife's 9700 or my 9800. It will drop the call every time. For the last several years I have had no issues with that handoff using the same router and OS versions on my BB devices. The devices will still go from EDGE to UMA with no problem, however. After much troubleshooting I finally called TMobile.

After getting escalated to tier 3 BlackBerry support they told me that there is a known issue between UMA and 3G with the UMA handoff to 3G or EDGE. They told me that the issue is even occurring on the OS7 devices (9900.) I'll bet that could be why they are holding off until November for the 9810. She said they were waiting on a fix from RIM. When I pressed her on what the cause was she really didn't know and it sounded like she didn't know whether it would be a software fix by RIM or a fix on the network end.

My guess, and it's only a guess, is that this is why they have disabled the UMA on the 9900 right now.

For now, I've turned off UMA on my devices as I got tired of the dropped calls every time I left home.

[aiharkness]

Over on the T-Mobile Community forums a T-Mobile employee has posted that when UMA is enabled on the 9900 it will not do handoffs. If that is correct, it conflicts with the idea that they are not enabling it until they fix the handoff problem.

Personally, I'm hoping the rep on the community forum is misinformed.

I too did not have trouble with handoffs with my 9700. Now I'm guessing that more often than not my moble network was EDGE at those times.
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[John Clark]

Why would that conflict? It sounds like there is a najor problem with UMA handoffs and they disabled it until they get it fixed. It actually makes sense.
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[aiharkness]

The T-Mobile employee on the other forum stated clearly that when UMA is enabled on 9900 with a software upgrade, it will not do handoffs. Why would they be waiting until they are able to provide handoff if, as the rep on the community forums says, there will be no hand off function?

To my mind, either the rep over on the other forum is wrong, or the speculation that T-Mobile is holding off enabling UMA until it can do handoffs is wrong. I hope the rep is misinformed and your speculation is correct, and that when UMA is enabled that the 9900 does handoffs.
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[John Clark]

Yeah, it doesn't make sense to enable it if it doesn't work. I'll bet they're waiting until its fixed before enabling it.

I use a 9800 so I don't get 3G but I noticed that 3G was rolled out in my area not too long ago. This issue started happening about that time. I don't know for sure if that is when it started but it seems an interesting coincidence that the rep I talked to mentioned a conflict with 3G.
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[John Clark]

do you have a link to that discussion, by the way?

[aiharkness]

Originally Posted by John Clark

do you have a link to that discussion, by the way?

I'll go look for it and edit if I can find.

EDIT: Here are two I could find quickly. See the posts by pfaas.

http://support.t-mobile.com/thread/5744?tstart=0

http://support.t-mobile.com/message/26088#26088

Another way of looking at it is T-Mobile anticpates releasing the UMA-enabling update before handoff is working, but will continue working on it.

Still, I hope pfaas is misinformed, and your speculation is correct.

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[sjsilverman]

a poster on Crackberry, who supposedly works for RIM, states that he has UMA on his 9900, but that it is still a bit buggy. He also stated that he believes it will support handoff when it is finally rolled out. Take it with a grain of salt.

[John Clark]

I'll bet it can be easily enabled using the same method I use to enable it on my ATT 9800
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[John Clark]

Grabbed one what?
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[Wavester]

Originally Posted by John Clark

I'll bet it can be easily enabled using the same method I use to enable it on my ATT 9800
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John,
I'm thinking the same thing. My ATT 9800 runs just as well as my 9780 on UMA after enabling.

Also, I have been going through the switching and dropping problem. I change my network setting from Wifi Preferred to Wifi only when in the house. This has prevented dropped calls while switching.

[Soapm]

So is the hardware there and an OS update will enable it in the future or is this a hardware limitation?

[jeffharris]

Originally Posted by John Clark

I'll bet it can be easily enabled using the same method I use to enable it on my ATT 9800
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Nope. I already went onto the engineering screens. They are pretty different than the one on OS6. Theres no option to add in UMA. There's only one mention of UMA in any of the menu choices (I went through them all), and it's not a mention that can be changed, simply a level of some sort.

[NJBlackBerry]

November....
It is a major hardware change with the 4G chipset. November...

[John Clark]

That's good to know. Thanks!

I don't have one to try it on.
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