* Reader response to fixed vs. mobile networks debate
Last month, we wrote a newsletter about a not-so-hypothetical debate on the virtues of fixed vs. mobile networks and enterprise solutions. We received quite a bit of mail in response to that newsletter and this week, we resume our look into the mailbag.
Last month, we wrote a newsletter about a not-so-hypothetical debate on the virtues of fixed vs. mobile networks and enterprise solutions. We received quite a bit of mail in response to that newsletter and this week, we resume our look into the mailbag.
Today, we hear from Steve Shaw, director of marketing at Kineto Wireless. He writes: “One of the primary goals of convergence is to bring the mobile phone from GSM, the domain of the mobile operator, onto the Wi-Fi/broadband network, the domain of the fixed operator. But … who owns the customer when a mobile device is operating on a fixed network?”
Shaw says that as an application, voice is going the way of mobile. “Because both fixed and mobile operators still rely on voice for a substantial portion of revenue, the ability to provide new applications to subscribers is critical to the long-term growth of fixed and/or mobile operators,” he writes.
He argues that no matter how much bandwidth mobile providers can squeeze out of a radio hertz, copper or fiber will always deliver substantially more, with consumers always wanting more.
“Over the past 18 months, however, there has been a strong movement away from ‘one number/one device’ to the convergence of fixed and mobile services,” he adds. Shaw believes that the move is not about getting rid of the home or desk phone but about making the mobile phone and fixed phone services work better together.
He adds: “The winner of the convergence game is going to be those operators with the ability and business acumen to see convergence as more than device or network. That means bringing fixed, mobile, video, voice and data together to offer truly converged services and applications, over the appropriate network and the appropriate device for the consumer.”
Our comments in four words: “Well put. We agree.”
