Firms won't wait for Fixed Mobile Coverage

Lack of dual-mode phones will mean buyers stick with desktop versions

Organisations looking for reliable dual mode WiFi/GSM handsets may have to wait until mid 2007 for high volumes of low cost devices to become available, and few are likely to discard their desktop telephones immediately.

Dual mode handsets were announced at last month’s 3GSM mobile technology showcase by Nokia, Motorola and others others. But Carolyn Nguyen, director of fixed mobile convergence (FMC) for IP telephony specialist Avaya, believes that these devices are not yet ready for commercial deployment and availability will remain limited until next year.

“The phones are not quite ready, and the idea that customers are saying they want dual mode phones and won’t move [to mobile IP telephony] until they is available is a nice premise, but I’m somewhat sceptical,” said Nguyen.

“Most of the benefits are already available without seamless [GSM and WiFi] handover, plus firms have to have a WLAN that supports a high density of calls and the necessary quality of service [QoS], and that requires a big investment.”

Avaya currently sells a mobile IP telephony client for Nokia series 60/80 handsets that links into features supplied by its CallManager enterprise private branch exchange (PBX) server via GSM only networks. The company is also looking to porting that client onto other platforms such as Windows Mobile and PalmOS.

“Obviously we’re looking at Windows because that will be the next big thing.” said Nguyen.

Enterprise interest in FMC stems largely from the convenience of having a single portable device for both in building and external use, plus potential cost savings of making calls from dual mode handsets over office wireless Lans (WLANs) or public access WiFi hotspots.

But Nguyen points out that discounted cellular tariffs and lower roaming charges can be achieved by signing up to carrier services which divert calls into local switches which then route them via virtual private networks (VPNs) or the Internet.