Orange's converged phone finally gets 3G

Orange has launched a 3G version of its Unik service in France, adding fast data services and new handsets, and brightening the prospects of the UMA protocol, which can switch phone calls between Wi-Fi and mobile cellular networks, on which Unik is based.

The 3G Unik includes new handsets, the Samsung P270 and the Sony Ericsson G705u, which go some way to remedy UMA's poor handset support. The G705u, Sony Ericsson's first UMA handset, is a UMA version of the new G705 web-oriented phone.

The U.K.'s first UMA service, BT Fusion, was a failure, which was finally closed on 2 September, and has been replaced by the Total Broadband Anywhere package that does not switch calls between indoor and outdoor networks.

T-Mobile is selling a UMA-based service, Hotspot@Home, in the U.S., but Telecom Italia abandoned its UMA service in 2007.

Orange claims greater success, with a million subscribers for Unik, which launched in 2006. The 3G version is only available in France, but the Unik service is available in the U.K., Spain and Poland, under the names Unique, Unico and Unifon. Orange promised to launch it in the other three countries but would not set a launch date. The company would not say how many Unique subscribers it had gained in the U.K. since the service's launch here one year ago.

Orange has also promised an enterprise service called Onsite Coverage, based on picocells.