Recently in fixed-mobile convergence Category

In a recent Sage/CMB Market Pulse newsletter, Chadwick Martin Bailey (a marketing and analytics company) reported that fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) technology is not yet mainstream in corporate America—and offered some reasons why that is.

Among those reasons:

• Demand for FMC won’t really pick up until enterprises integrate mobile devices into their corporate telephony systems; most have not yet done this.
• It may be true that business use of mobile phones is prolific, but most of those devices are not connected in any way to the corporate PBX.
• FMC won’t become mainstream in corporate America until it becomes clear that adopting the technology offers clear return on investment (ROI).
• Full-blown FMC (as opposed to cellular-only) requires comprehensive WiFI coverage and IP-PBX deployments, which aren’t available everywhere and may present prohibitive costs.

These points make it clear that much work lies ahead before the promise of FMC is realized. We’ll probably get there eventually, but not for a while.

What do you think—is FMC years away? Decades? Why?

Listen up, readers in India: ASUSTeK Computer, Inc. (ASUS), a provider of digital home solutions, on Monday launched what it calls “the world’s first wireless music Skype phone,” in the Indian market.

The AiGuru S1 provides free international calls via Skype, WiFi connectivity, wireless music player functions, and remote controller features.

“The goal of digital home technologies is to share computer resource with other electronic devices around the house and provide greater convenience,” said Joe Hsieh, director of ASUS’ digital home business, in a statement. “The AiGuru S1 packed several practical features for easy and wireless access of PC functions. Skype, listen to music or even manage music library with this new product.”

ASUS in its announcement highlighted the following key advantages of AiGuru S1: 

• Wireless Skype

• Wireless music player

• Basic and advanced phone functions

In appearance, ASUS’ new phone, with its upright cradle and white color, looks a lot like any cordless home phone. The company has set a retail price of approximately Rs 7750 (roughly $174).

It’s not too late to add another item to your Christmas wish list, is it? If you’re a power laptop user, an announcement yesterday from HP and Cingular may have you dropping some last-minute hints to Santa. The two companies announced availability of the first laptop in the U.S. market with built-in mobile broadband capability.

Cingular Wireless contributed the UMTS/HSDPA technology that’s built into HP’s Compaq nc6400 Notebook PC, which “allows business professionals to connect in more areas at broadband speeds to corporate networks, email and the Internet without being tied to a wireless hotspot.”

To take advantage of the feature, you’ll need a service subscription, of course—to Cingular’s Wireless BroadbandConnect or high-speed EDGE offerings. That’s in the U.S.; the laptop also can be used abroad “in more than 115 countries in which there are UMTS or GPRS/EDGE networks available.”

The companies noted in their announcement that Cingular’s UMTS/HSDPA network is currently available in 145 major metro areas in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. The broadband network offers download speeds of 400-700 kilobits per second.

Compaq nc6400 uses a tri-band UMTS modem that supports transfer rates of up to 3.6 megabits per second. Dual antennas are integrated into the laptop, and it comes with Cingular Communications Manager software for establishing connections to Cingular’s 3G network.

Some of the other notable features of the Compaq nc6400 include:

• Wireless LAN and Bluetooth connectivity

• 14.1-inch diagonal widescreen display

• Optional HP Privacy Filter

• Intel Core 2 Duo processors

• Support of 3D graphicsMicrosoft Windows Vista capable

In a recent blog entry, I wrote about T-Mobile’s dual-mode (WiFi/Cellular) service being rolled out in Seattle. In the entry, I posed the question: “are consumers actually interested in dual-mode services?”

A definite “yes” answer came from a reader who asked to be identified as Levi from Nairobi, Kenya, who is attending graduate school in the U.S. and wants a cheaper way to communicate with friends and family back home.

“My interest is to have, create, start, or whatever it would take, an easier wireless/wi-fi communication from USA to Africa and vice-versa,” Levi wrote.

Levi said that, while most African cell phones use SIM cards, they are quite expensive compared to those in the U.S. When he flies back home, his Sprint cell phone doesn’t work. T-Mobile, he noted, does provide a mobile phone that works in Africa—and he is planning to switch to T-Mobile for that reason—but it requires a Kenyan SIM card.

“Calling from Kenya to the USA, you have to go to phone bureau or booth that might not charge a lot due to the exchange rate (US dollar to Kenya Shilling) but sometimes, calls are not clear,” Levi wrote. He noted that he can use phone cards to call Kenya, but it is a hassle having to dial all the extra numbers. Also, while calling card rates may be relatively inexpensive, the minutes do add up if you call abroad often.

Clearly, if a dual-mode service offered cheaper rates, reduced hassle, and better voice quality when calling abroad, via WiFi, Levi is one person who would be interested.

I must admit I haven’t attempted to use a cell phone for international calls; when my husband spent six months in India a couple years ago, we mostly communicated via instant messenger (which was slow because he was on a dial-up connection) or occasionally phone using a calling card. Even with the card, phone calls were expensive enough that we saved them for very high priority communications, and stuck with IM for the day-to-day stuff.

It seems to me that two things are needed: better or different communications infrastructure (in the case of India, broadband—whether cable or wireless—would have been helpful) and appropriate services to go along with it.

That could be a challenge, since in some places even basic electrical and phone services are lacking. But, I have heard that WiFi is pretty cheap to deploy compared to some other ways of delivering broadband (and voice).

What do you think—will we all someday make phone calls using WiFi? Will that make it easier and cheaper to make international calls?

Symbol Technologies, a company that specializes in enterprise mobility solutions, announced today what it says is the first ever radio frequency (RF) wireless switch (RFS7000) capable of bridging all RF technologies—including RFID, 802.11n, mesh, voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) and WiMAX.

In its announcement about RFS7000, Symbol said the switch “is designed to support and consolidate Wi-Fi and emerging RF technologies,” enabling businesses to “efficiently and cost-effectively deploy and centrally manage wireless voice, data and infrastructure devices throughout the RF spectrum.”

In an article today, Laptop Magazine reporter Jeffrey Wilson noted that the RFS7000 supports up to two-hundred and fifty-six 802.11a/b/g access port, and enables Layer 3 roaming, “which allows mobile users to maintain a connection to high-bandwidth applications as they roam.”

Here is an image of the unassuming-looking RFS7000, courtesy of newscom.com.

Wilson’s conclusion is that, because the switch runs on Linux OS, it has definite promise to let “users to abandon piecemeal RF technology installations and allow them to leverage their investment on an ongoing basis rather than ripping and replacing hardware when it becomes obsolete.”

Symbol’s VP and General Manager of the company’s Wireless Infrastructure and RFID divisions, Anthony Bartolo, said in a statement that, “Business needs are driving the convergence of voice, video and data, effectively pushing the new mobile edge from the wired to the wireless touch point, and requiring the network to adapt to the changing needs of new mobile devices and applications.”

Bartolo continued: “The industry's first RF switch will provide the platform to integrate and manage current and future mobile devices and wireless technologies.”

Here are some of the key features Symbol is using to market its new product:

• Robust, scalable support for enterprise mobility

• Use of modular Wi-NG-based architecture

• 802.11n-ready

• Supports optional add-on modules for dual-mode (cellular/WiFi) handheld devices

• Integration with Symbol’s RF Management software

The big wireless news so far this week is T-Mobile’s launch of its dual-mode WiFi/Cellular service in Seattle.

TMCnet Associate Editor Patrick Barnard reported yesterday that the new service “lets T-Mobile’s subscribers make free phone calls using their at-home WiFi network or from any number of public WiFi hot spots which have been set up throughout the city. For now, only subscribers using the Nokia 6136 and the Samsung T709 dual mode phones can place free calls over WiFi.”

The new service uses Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology, which was developed by Kineto Wireless and is now part of 3rd Generation Partnership Project’s (3GPP) standards. (T-Mobile also is using femtocell technology to enhance wireless network coverage, according to TMCnet Executive Editor Robert Liu.)

Liu, who reported last month on T-Mobile’s service ahead of its official deployment in Seattle, corresponded today by e-mail with Kineto Director of Marketing Steve Shaw, to get some additional details about how the service functions.

In an e-mail correspondence, Shaw told Liu that UMA enables true seamless handover between WiFi and cellular networks, “without any noticeable (sub 50 msec) service interruption.”

UMA enables this functionality, Shaw explained, because it works in the same way as a base station  controller in a cellular network.

“When you drive across town, your GSM call is seamlessly handed between BSCs and radio antennas as you drive,” Shaw said. “UMA uses the exact same technology to accomplish call handovers.”

For subscribers, the benefits are pretty obvious: the ability to conserve cell phone minutes and make calls from any location. Using the service in a WiFi hotspot (T-Mobile says it plans to increase the number of hotspots it already maintains) gives subscribers access to transfer speeds faster than even 3G cellular—making it possible to download content such as music, videos, and games.

T-Mobile wins first prize when it comes to rolling out national, U.S. dual-mode service—but lags somewhat behind in the global race. British Telecom was first to market globally, with the roll-out of its Fusion a year ago June. TeliaSonera’s dual-mode service, Home Free, followed suit earlier this fall, and Orange’s unik was fast on its heels. Telecom Italia also launched a dual-mode service last month.

In his article, Barnard raises some questions about how T-Mobile will handle billing of the service—specifically, whether or not it will be difficult for subscribers to keep track of how many cellular minutes they’ve used. I won’t be a spoiler, though—check out the article yourself to see some of the questions T-Mobile hasn’t yet answered about its new service.

The biggest question I still have is: are consumers actually interested in dual-mode services? I suspect the answer will lie in how easy the new services are to use, and to what extent they help people save money on their phone bills.