* Fixed-mobile convergence progress as AT&T, Verizon disclose femtocell plans
AT&T and Verizon were last week reported to be moving further with their femtocell plans. According to Fiercewireless, Verizon is waiting for FCC approval for its femtocell base station and the company may launch its service in 2009. Unstrung.com reported that AT&T is conducting lab tests and plans to trial the technology later this year and into 2009. Femtocells are cellular base stations used in the home of office to improve wireless phone coverage using a broadband data service to carry mobile calls over the Internet.
Femtocell technology is already used by Sprint, which trialed its own femtocell technology and launched the service in July 2008 using the Samsung Airave. According to our colleague Joanie Wexler who writes the Network World Wireless newsletterT-Mobile is also said to be working on a similar service dubbed T-Mobile@Home.
T-Mobile already uses Wi-Fi technology to deliver in-home mobile phone connectivity over broadband connections; in July 2008, T-Mobile announced a nationwide VoIP-based landline phone service that offers subscribers unlimited domestic calls for $10 a month.
So what does all this mean? For one, fixed-mobile convergence is moving out of the lab and into the home or office, providing mobile connections over a broadband network with access to phone networks. But the bigger implication is to traditional voice services. AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest all reported voice line losses in their Q3 2008 results – continuing a downward trend that has been seen for over two years. Some of the telco voice lines were lost to cable company VoIP competition, and some were lost to wireless substitutions as subscribers “cut the cord” to traditional land line phone service. As femtocells and Wi-Fi connections to the phone network gain in availability and in popularity, it looks to us like customers will have one more reason to abandon legacy voice networks.
