UMA - Enough already...

08-28-2010, 09:45 AM

Someone please explain in complete detail what the purpose of the UMA symbol is on my BB8900. I used to have it and it's been gone for about 8 days now. I still have the EDGE and WiFi symbols, but I miss the UMA symbol. Go figure. There has to be a reason for it magically appearing and then disappearing. Sometimes if I just wait long enough, it comes back again, but not this time. I don't have the Rogers Talk Spot/Hot Spot/whatever, b/c I don't need it. I have a wireless router at home and am accessing that...most of the time. Admittedly so, the WiFi symbol can't always make up its mind, whether to grey itself out or not, but for the most part, I can always keep restarting it in the "Manage Connections" area and eventually it takes.

...but I miss my UMA symbol. It's got to be there for a reason, err rather, it used to be there for a reason...no?? Why can't I get it back now? Do I need that pesky little UMA symbol to access the internet from anywhere in my house or as long as WiFi isn't greyed out, I'm good to go, without being charged data?

Calling all techie guru's to explain to me, why oh why, my UMA symbol doesn't like me anymore and won't come back.

08-28-2010, 06:50 PM

UMA refers to phone calls over a wireless signal. If it was an option and you deleted the talk spot, I'm going to guess that is why it is gone. Since I'm not on Rogers and don't have an 8900 I don't know if that's a possibility or not. But that's what UMA is... Hope that helps.

08-28-2010, 11:41 PM

Didn't delete the talk spot or the icon or anything. Simply put, it no longer appears, where at one time and on more than one occasion, it did appear (the icon). I didn't realize that the only thing the UMA icon was for, is for phone calls. I never do calling when I'm at home, unless someone calls me and then I answer. I simply use my home phone.

I think I understand your drift though, I was totally wrong about the UMA symbol. I thought the UMA and the WiFi symbol/icon had to appear together, before you could go on the internet, etc., without having to pay for time spent. I didn't realize that having the WiFi symbol/icon only, was good enough, not to have to pay for data usage.

So, thank you so much for your explanation. I'm still confused as to why that silly icon has appeared (up until last week) and on more than one occasion and for longer than a brief 5-10 minute stint and why it no longer does. I just thought it was something I did wrong or didn't do.

**Carlos R** · 08-29-2010, 06:43 AM

You're welcome. Sorry I don't have any more insight on why it might have disappeared. There has got to be a setting or something on your phone to enable or disable it. Hopefully someone that knows will jump in and answer. But no, UMA doesn't have to be enabled to browse the web or use data through wi-fi.

Chances are you just changed a setting unintentionally.

**Brittany G** · 08-29-2010, 02:46 PM

That's okay, hopefully, someone will jump in and help answer this mystery.

BTW, honest, didn't touch a setting and there isn't any settings that I can find. That's why I'm so frustrated. It's gotta be a Canuck (Rogers) thing just to tick me off. I know the real answer - they just want me to call back into their techie line, so I can hold for another hour, listen to some techie tell me that I must wipe my entire system, b/c it's obviously a software issue, when in reality, they really don't know, but feel obligated to tell me something. .

You're a doll for responding so quickly though!

08-29-2010, 08:37 PM

If you have a UMA enabled phone, it will work regardless of if you have a TalkSpot package. The only difference is you don't get the "unlimited benefits" of a TalkSpot account