T-Mobile could find themselves in some hot water as patent-holder Calypso Wireless begins legal actions to protect their cellular-to-Wi-Fi handoff technology. T-Mobile’s HotSpot@Home lets subscribers have unlimited calling when using their Wi-Fi-capable handset within their home Wi-Fi network, or when using one of T-Mobile’s thousands of hotspots across the U.S. The tricky part is making sure you can move from one network to another without an interruption service (i.e. dropping calls when going from Wi-Fi to cell, or vice versa).
Patent number 6,680,923 details how a device could seamlessly switch between two networks while maintaining the same connection, which could prove to be bad news for other UMA service providers, like Rogers and their Talkspot program. It’s a growingly-popular service, and Calypso in a good position to cash in with infringement claims. Their president, Richard Pattin, was pretty smug about the whole thing.
“This is a significant turning point for Calypso, as we believe it will open the doors for hundreds of millions of dollars in licensing opportunities. Calypso has invested significantly in the discovery, development and continued advancement of FMC. When others make use of our patented technology, we will continue to take aggressive action including the enforcement of our legal rights.”
[via Cellular-News]