* Mobile convergence pieces start falling into place
We’re seeing tangible progress toward integrating VoIP, cellular networks and wireless LANs to give business users the ultimate roaming-and-talking experiences.
Start-up DiVitas Networks last week formally announced the shipment of its enterprise fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) system, which comprises the DiVitas Mobile Convergence Appliance (MCA) and Mobile Convergence Client (MCC) handset software. The gear lists for $5,495 for the MCA with a 10-user MCC license.
Meanwhile, Siemens this week plans to announce that it will begin shipping its HiPath Mobile Connect enterprise appliance and handset client software for enabling FMC in April.
Both systems are to be bought, installed and maintained by enterprises, without the need for special carrier involvement. Other early FMC systems that use IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technologies are intended to be installed in carrier network infrastructures so that service providers can eventually offer single-number, internetwork roaming services of their own.
The DiVitas and Siemens FMC systems, by contrast, keep enterprises in control of their own PBX functionality. They allow employees to be reached by a single phone number and to wander among corporate WLANs and cellular networks without their phone calls being interrupted. Signal handoff takes place in the background (via the appliance) so as not to disrupt the live conversation.
The point? First, to improve productivity by making employees more accessible by a single phone number and by unified voicemail systems that save them the time of checking multiple mailboxes. Second, to save a few bucks on cellular charges during times when employees are covered by the “free airwaves” of the corporate Wi-Fi network.
On the cost-savings front, Chris Silva, an analyst at Forrester Research, advises companies to centralize cellular service procurement and leverage volume discounts, if they haven’t already. “There may be fairly meaningful savings there,” he says, indicating that it makes sense to build the business case for an FMC system after going after those savings, if cellular cost cutting is your primary goal.
There are many dimensions to these and other VoIP-related announcements in the mobile convergence space to consider, including your network’s voice-readiness, breadth of roaming support and internetwork security schemes. So stay tuned.
