I live in an area that has no Broadband internet other than Satellite or using a Verizon Mobile Broadband card. Verizon is the only cell service provider where I live and their tower is EVDO Rev A. Tried doing some searching but didnt find exactly what I was looking for so here is my question.

Will a T-Mobile BB 8320 be able to connect to UMA using the above mentioned internet connections at all? I dont make a lot of phone calls at home but email through the UMA would be great. I know it would be best to just get a Verizon Blackberry but I am looking for another solution.

Currently I have the Broadband card but would gladly purchase Satellite if that was better. I thought about just going down to T-Mobile and trying it out for myself but wanted to ask you all first so I dont waste my or T-Mo's time.

Thanks for any help on this.

I'm not sure how you'd get the internet from the broadband card to a router, but try a VOIP test and see how your connection is.

MySpeed VoIP connection test, VoIP test, test VoIP performance, test VoIP quality
VoIP Speed Test - Test your Internet Connection Speed | VoIPReview.org
VoIP Bandwidth Test

That third website says satellite at 400kbps can hold from 1 to 6 simultaneous VOIP conversations. But compare that to a DSL connection that can handle 3 to 60. Sounds like you might be able to do UMA. But kinda expensive when you can just go with Verizon.

A satellite connection will not mix well with VoIP calls. I've talked to T-Mobile customers using a satellite Internet connection for their UMA calls and it was horrible sounding. In fact, that's why they called into T-Mobile to start with.

VoIP calling is very latency sensitive and satellite Internet connections have such a high latency built-in (for the time it takes the signal to travel 22,500 miles up then back down) that there is nothing you can do to really make it work any better.

Dave

monkeypaw - I ran those three tests and the results were that it should work. I was either going to make my wifi laptop an AP or just buy a wifi router that accepts Mobile Broadband cards. I hear ya about being cheaper to just use Verizon and I may just go that route. I like the idea of UMA and want to at least try it out with the 15/30 day trial period.

sgtcasey - I am not to worried about the voice calls as I would just set my forwarding to ring the home phone. I dont recieve that many calls after work hours when I am home.

The main thing is email and an occasional text message.

Then you should be okay.

Dave

Wirelessly posted (BB 8320)

Went down to my local TMo store and signed up for the 8320. Got home tonight and set ICS on my laptop and used my Linksys router as wifi access to my Broadband card through my laptop. It didn't take long for my phone to sync up to UMA. Made a couple of test calls and they sounded really good. SMS email and of course web browsing all work like a champ. Posting this now on UMA.



If I run into any troubles ill update this post, so far so good.

Hi,
I ran those three tests and the results were that it should work. I was either going to make my wifi laptop an AP or just buy a wifi router that accepts Mobile Broadband cards. I hear ya about being cheaper to just use Verizon and I may just go that route. I like the idea of UMA and want to at least try it out with the 15/30 day trial period.
Andy