On Oct. 15, start-up Agito Networks entered the exciting enterprise fixed-mobile convergence (eFMC) market. As John Dix pointed out in his article Cell/Wi-Fi convergence based on novel approach, Agito is using a new approach to determine when a mobile phone call should be switched from a cellular network to your enterprise WLAN when moving in building, and vice versa when you leave the enterprise.

Agito claims to be the first and only vendor to offer a mobile convergence solution based on location awareness. While this strategy leads to a unique offering today, even more intriguing is that it leaves the door open for a number of future features and enhancements. More on this later. First, some background information on Agito.

Along with announcing the company’s emergence from stealth mode in mid October, Agito announced its first product, the RoamAnywhere Mobility Router. It is a network appliance that connects to your enterprise IP PBX. It allows your dual-mode mobile handsets and smart phones to become a part of your corporate phone system. Based on a user’s preference, calls can be routed to his desk phone or his mobile phone, even when he leaves the building. And, he only has one enterprise phone number, one voicemail box, and one mobile device.

This, in itself, is nothing new. Mobile extensions from PBX vendors have allowed this capability for some time. Two features that are new with the RoamAnywhere Mobility Router are intelligent handover and location-aware mobile policies. These are the unique location-aware features.

Intelligent handover refers to the transfer of a call on a mobile unit from a cellular carrier to your internal Wi-Fi network when moving in building, and vice versa. It’s a lot cheaper to use Voice over WLAN rather than cellular minutes when a person is within range of the WLAN. With the Agito solution, an administrator marks the network ingress/egress handoff locations – typically the building entrance points – with a click of a button. These positions, called RoutePoints, are stored in the mobility router.

When an authorized device passes a RoutePoint into the building covered by the WLAN, the call is seamlessly transferred from cellular to Wi-Fi. It continues to be handled by the Wi-Fi network as long as the device is in the building and the wireless signal is strong. Other metrics can play into the calculations for routing, too, such as the device’s battery time and the quality of the session, but the primary determining factor is the physical location of the handset. Agito claims this can save a company up to 60% of the cost of mobile phone service by drastically reducing cellular service minutes.

Linda Musthaler is a principal analyst with Essential Solutions Corporation.