Nokia today received approval from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for its upcoming 6086 quad-band camera phone. The rather unspectacular casing of the flip phone hides Nokia’s next UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) phone, which can use Wi-Fi networks to make phone calls.
UMA is currently field tested by T-Mobile under the name "T-Mobile@Home". The company currently offers customers in the Seattle area unlimited Wi-Fi calling for a flat fee of $20. The only phones supporting this feature at this time is Nokia’s 6136 that is sold for $50 with a 2-year contract.
The Nokia 6086, scheduled for an early Q1 2007 introduction, will only be available for GSM networks (850/900/1800/1900), integrate a digital camera with 640×480 pixel resolution, a 128×160 pixel color display (as well as a second 96×68 pixel b/w display on the outside), a FM radio, a digital music player, Bluetooth capability and a micro SD memory card slot.
Source: TG Daily
I must restrain myself from going off on the FCC and speak about T-Mobile’s new service instead. Tell me how this is beneficial, $20 a month to save your company and the customer some money? Why not just make it free?! The entire point of SIP calls are to reduce cost because you’re using the IP infrastructure that’s already in place. Yet oh no, let’s charge $20 a month and tell the people how beneficial it is since they can make free calls while at home. At that point I’d just tell people to use Skype, not this @Home nonsense.