Can FMC unite the diverse carrier drivers?

The RBOCs' profit reports for the last quarter show some common trends in their revenues: legacy services and public switched telephone network lines are down, while mobile wireless and consumer broadband are up. Having two market areas up and only one down isn't bad, but if the RBOCs have to invest big bucks in both wireless and consumer broadband, it could crimp their profits. If they have to make a choice, some of our assumptions about the future will not come true. But maybe they don't have to choose - and maybe they can't.

Many in the network industry see fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) as a subset of the overall convergence theme - putting voice on the Internet. Others think IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), a technology that can support FMC, is what FMC is about. Both are wrong; FMC is about money - saving it and making it.

FMC's money-saving mission is linked to the propping up of wireline revenues by linking wireline VoIP to wireless. Few players can offer both, so the competition that could reduce VoIP pricing to near-zero levels is sharply reduced. But the amount of infrastructure required for voice convergence like this is peanuts in an RBOC capital budget of billions and does nothing to converge spending from the fixed and mobile sides.

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The RBOCs' profit reports for the last quarter show some common trends in their revenues: legacy services and public switched telephone network lines are down, while mobile wireless and consumer broadband are up. Having two market areas up and only one down isn't bad, but if the RBOCs have to invest big bucks in both wireless and consumer broadband, it could crimp their profits. If they have to make a choice, some of our assumptions about the future will not come true. But maybe they don't have to choose - and maybe they can't.

Many in the network industry see fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) as a subset of the overall convergence theme - putting voice on the Internet. Others think IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), a technology that can support FMC, is what FMC is about. Both are wrong; FMC is about money - saving it and making it.

FMC's money-saving mission is linked to the propping up of wireline revenues by linking wireline VoIP to wireless. Few players can offer both, so the competition that could reduce VoIP pricing to near-zero levels is sharply reduced. But the amount of infrastructure required for voice convergence like this is peanuts in an RBOC capital budget of billions and does nothing to converge spending from the fixed and mobile sides.