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FMC On Fast Track To Dominance |
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Written by Adam Gosling
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Monday, 26 February 2007 |
Industry research outfit ABI Research has released a report that suggests dramatic changes to telephone services over the next four years will see Fixed to Mobile Convergence
gain momentum. ABI is predicting that as many as quarter of a billion users will be making calls on converged mobile networks by 2011.
Calling it "one of the hottest new market phenomena" ABI Research says fixed-mobile
convergence will reach this lefvel thanks to a significant increase in the infrastructure spending. It says capital
expenditure in FMC will exceed US$450 million by 2011 which will translate into around 10% of households and 8% of enterprises using some
form of FMC access point on the premises.
"There are several competing technologies for fixed-mobile
convergence," says ABI Research wireless research director Stuart
Carlaw. "These include using UMA to aggregate traffic from femtocells
and Wi-Fi access points in the home, and pico cells in the office. In
the longer term, IMS-based solutions will be deployed using SIP to
offer rich voice sessions over converged devices."
"But so far," Carlaw warns, "the unavailability of lower call charges,
a simple tariff structure, and a choice of devices has inhibited the
market. Of course, very few services have been commercialized yet, but
early experience suggests that acceptance will be slow until these
issues are resolved."
ABI Research Vice president Clint Wheelock adds, "Because of the
potential of fixed-mobile convergence and its growing importance, we
have launched a whole new subscription-based Research Service to
address this nascent market. The new service provides a comprehensive
picture of the forces driving the sector in a critical period of
change."
The service offers qualitative and quantitative data on the key service
and technology enablers that are allowing carriers to roll out FMC
services with confidence.
It considers the whole value chain of the FMC
environment, ranging from Fixed-Mobile Substitution service tariffs
through the network transport layer technologies and core network
technologies such as IMS.
Moreover, it provides a much-needed view of
the ways in which technological solutions such as voice-over-Wi-Fi and
femtocells will fit into the big picture.
The researchers says thenew solutions to emerge over the coming years are likely to include both UMA (Unlicesned Mobile Accesss) and SIP-based solutions, both of which will support voice call continuity between mobile and fixed infrastructure.
Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) involves technologies that provides access to GSM and GPRS mobile services over unlicensed spectrum technologies such as Bluetooth and 802.11 (Wi-Fi). By deploying UMA technology, service providers can enable subscribers to roam and handover between cellular and fixed networks via these public or private wireless networks.
The Fixed-Mobile Convergence Research Service offers a bundle of research reports, along with monthly ABI Insights and Research Briefs.
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