Fixed/Mobile Convergence: Enterprise Update

Farpoint Group considers convergence to be one of the most important trends in wireless today. Usually called fixed/mobile convergence (FMC), convergence in this case involves the unification of cellular phones and enterprise telecom systems typically based on PBXs of some form-in other words, allowing

The benefits of such an approach have been widely publicized: Lower costs, due to having less infrastructure to maintain: unification of key CLASS and custom-calling services including dialing directories and voice mail; and enhancing the enterprise's telecom reach in fulfillment of the anytime/anywhere promise of wireless. Farpoint Group has further extended the convergence model via another term, mobile/mobile convergence (MMC), which refers to the unification of cellular and Wi-Fi (and potentially other wireless) networks for both voice and data (see "Why Wi-Fi Is No Threat To Cellular").

As a framework for defining and discussing the key FMC alternatives, we will take the model of convergence proposed by KCR columnist Dave Passmore in conjunction with the Symposium on Fixed/Mobile Convergence held at last year's Next Generation Networks (NGN) conference. (That symposium was chaired by the author of this article.) The framework breaks down as follows: