Orange France is launching what it claims to be the world’s first commercial 3G unlicensed mobile access (UMA) service next month, it announced in a press release. Two 3G/UMA Orange handsets from Samsung and Sony Ericsson will be available to French customers in October, with the convergence service set to be expanded to Orange subsidiaries in Poland, Spain and the UK soon. Orange France’s existing UMA service, branded ‘Unik’, allows customers to make all calls on a single handset by switching from fixed Wi-Fi to cellular networks when entering/leaving the home/office. In Poland, the UMA service is branded as ‘Unifon’, whereas in Spain it is sold under the ‘Unico’ banner, and is known in the UK as ‘Unique’.

Source:telegeography