Innovation of the Week: UMA gets connected

What: Unlicensed mobile access technology

Why you should care: UMA was really the first technology choice for carriers who were early believers in fixed-mobile convergence (FMC). Early on, it was deployed mostly overseas, and those deployments met with mixed success. However, U.S carriers have recently begun to move in trials and commercial offerings. UMA also is a 3GPP standards and has been adapted to work with femtocells.

Who's using it: Cincinnati Bell and T-Mobile USA are the most recent U.S. converts. In Europe, carriers such as Telecom Italia, Orange and TeliaSonera are using it.