Seamless Roaming Nears Reality: Page 2 of 5

Unfortunately this near-term standard lacks support for conventional data services, such as SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Message Service). VCC also lags behind the similarly consumer-focused UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) by at least 18 months. It inadequately addresses important enterprise features, such as call waiting and call transfer. And it has a simplistic roaming algorithm and no enterprise PBX integration.

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RELATED LINKS 802.11r: Wireless LAN Fast Roaming Seamless Handoffs Required for Mobile Convergence? Categorizing Voice-Based Roaming for Convergence Platforms	AROUND THE WEB WIDPS Analyst Report With wireless being the unguided medium that it is, organizations are concerned about both the security and performance of their Wi-Fi network. This report analyzes the market and user experiences with WIDPS, laying out product choices, and helping you pick the right system for your needs.

In Search Of Pervasive Communications

Despite the fact that carriers are revving their 3G networks and moving toward an all-IP infrastructure, enterprises are demanding pervasive communications even where the cellular signal is faint or nonexistent. While carriers promote cellular repeaters, DAS (Distributed Antenna System) and pico-cells, the mass adoption of Wi-Fi as the broadband wireless network of choice now provides an alternate means for these carriers to extend their presence-moving traffic away from their expensive and precious licensed spectrum onto unlicensed and almost unlimited Wi-Fi spectrum and increase usage (resulting in lower costs and more minutes because customers can use their phone more often with better coverage).

Rather than develop a standalone proprietary system, both wireless and wireline carriers focused on leveraging the IMS (IP Multimedia System) framework to build a standards-based platform that uses dual-mode handsets--which support both circuit-switched cellular voice and VoIP running over Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is more than just an important element of their FMC (fixed-mobile convergence) strategy; it's also perceived by the carriers as a good medium-to-long-term strategic choice for delivery of services beyond mobile voice, such data, video and multimedia. Enterprises using Centrex (and possibly hosted VoIP) can continue to use their hosted voice for mobile voice services in and out of the office, with a single telephone number and voicemail box. Even though VCC is not the foundation upon which enterprise dual-mode PBX-oriented solutions will be built, its widespread consumer adoption would provide greater device choices.

VCC VS. UMA