Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless
Truth be told, Fixed Mobile Convergence still isn’t talked about much (comparatively speaking) ’round these parts. Yeah, we’ve seen a few FMC routers scattered about, but Vodafone’s taking a stand by rolling out its Station in Italy. The box, which was developed in cooperation with Huawei, is an integrated switch / router with ADSL2+, WiFi, UMTS / HSPA (via a removable USB key) and four Ethernet ports. Essentially, it’s designed to combine voice with fixed and mobile broadband services, and it enables users to make calls on their handset through a fixed line connection when they’re kicking back at home. We’re also hearing that the device will eventually make its way to other Vodafone markets, but there’s been no word yet on future rollout dates.
[Via GigaOM]
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Entries (RSS)
June 7th, 2008 at 3:10 am
i want to give some extra info:
FMC means Fixed-Mobile Convergence
About two decades ago, the mobile industry got its start on the strength of early adoption of mobile phones by business users. Despite the size and heft of those early cellular phones, business users latched on to the benefits of mobility and gave the wireless industry the boost it needed to get up on its feet and drive continued success through eventual penetration into the mass consumer space.
Fast forward to today and the telecom industry is on the verge of yet another major inflection point: fixed-mobile convergence. While early FMC deployments such as those based on Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology have primarily focused on the consumer segment, lack of standards and technology incompatibility issues have prevented FMC services to be tailored for the enterprise.
The bottom line is that operators that successfully deliver FMC services to the enterprise stand much to gain. Two decades ago the business user jump-started adoption of mobile services. This time around success with the enterprise segment could very well translate into eventual mass scale success again.
Source: http://www.5001.net