British Telecom plc is trialing a new flavor of fixed-mobile convergence, as part of its unified communications offering. The trial involves replacing desktop phones with mobile endpoints that use the macro cellular network rather than switching off to Wi-Fi within the office. The idea is to give companies options to fit their size and budget.
The trials are being done globally with OnRelay, an FMC software company. OnRelay MBX allows companies to push all the functionality of the customer’s existing PBX to a mobile phone.
“There is a general recognition that dual-mode solutions are not suitable for all customers and situations,” explained Pauline Trotter, principal analyst at Ovum Ltd. “We have long felt that single-mode solutions have been somewhat neglected, despite (or perhaps even because of) their relative simplicity of deployment. Even those vendors that have offerings in this area seem to have been half-hearted about marketing them, almost as if they were waiting until 'full' converged products based on dual-mode were available. This is a shame.”
She said that single-mode solutions have the potential to solve many of the problems that FMC is designed to address, without the technical complexity of dual-mode solutions.
“The case for FMC has primarily been sold in terms of cost reduction based on reduced usage costs for on-premises calls – but these savings are hard to demonstrate, especially where the enterprise needs a significant enhancement to the capacity and coverage of its Wi-Fi network,” she said. “We also think that in the current market conditions some corporations will delay FMC projects that require significant investment before any benefits can be reaped. Moreover, the continuing decline of mobile call costs cannot but further undermine the cost-savings basis for moving to convergence. In this context, the other deficits of dual-mode solutions – including the reduced battery life of devices operating in WLAN mode – loom large.”
