Uma Thurman is a hot spot!

Uma Thurman's parents showed great foresight in naming their kid, I mean, who was to know that UMA was going to have such an impact on the communications industry?
Now you can have UMA in your pocket, thanks to some very rapid engineering by LG (the standard only came out a year ago).
UMA lets you have access on WiFi, but then transfers seamlessly to GSM when you move out of range (that's the kind of girl she is!)
Does UMA work? Well, time will tell, but I don't think it matters terribly much. She looks good!
David Mould's post on IP devices and WiFi access prompted me to summarise some comments I have been leaving around the place, particularly on Communities Dominate Brands and Telepocalypse.

The effect of UMA will be either a confrontation between the Mobile Operators and the handset manufacturers, OR the Mobile Operators will be forced to get into the hotspot business.
UMA is MO's best friend, but MO doesn't see it that way, yet (or we would have seen a corresponding rollout of WiFi from Mobile operators - perhaps partnerships are in the offing? Ed. T-Mobile = Strong Buy?)
As VoIP starts to eat into MO's revenues, providing very cheap voice communications is going to be a prerequisite for MO. UMA allows them to do it, while still retaining the customer for GSM calls. All MO needs to do is create a blended rate for Licensed and Unlicensed access and they have a huge advantage over HO (Hotspot Operator).
The thing that I find a little galling about this is that the Licenses created this scenario, and now we are going to need regulation to open up access to MO and allow HO to compete in the market.
It's possible that people might still prefer to independently access HO and make calls etc, but we are still some distance away from making that a simple proposition for the average mobile user.
MO has a huge opportunity here to be the centre of attention in the new business model, but she's making so much cash singing the oldies, that she seems to be ignoring the new trends. Question is: Can MO sing Hot Spot? (this is getting lame, I'm not even going to write the obvious punchline!)

In the end, it may be Reg(ulation) that provides the final cut to MO. Et tu Brutè?