The FMC paradigm also promises cost-savings for enterprise users who will be able to make some calls for free using VoIP over the corporate WLAN instead of eating up cell phone calling-plan minutes.
Solution providers are in a prime position to build FMC solutions for their customers, said Mark Kuta, senior vendor business manager for mobility at Ingram Micro U.S. The Santa Ana, Calif., distributor last week launched a new mobility division to encompass new partnerships with wireless carriers such as Verizon Wireless, Sprint/Nextel and Cingular as well as with device manufacturers and ISVs including Palm, Nokia, Motorola, Research in Motion and Good Technology to help VARs build wireless solutions.
"VARs today are already the trusted source for end users, providing networking and software solutions. When customers understand how mobility comes as an extension of the network, they're going to go to that VAR for help," Kuta said.
To be sure, true FMC isn't quite here, but some of its building blocks are. Dual-mode handsets that have both Wi-Fi and cellular radios, now available from vendors such as i-mate, Motorola, Nokia and Paragon Wireless, are part of a market that's expected to grow. By 2009, the Wi-Fi phone market is expected to hit $3.7 billion, up from $125.5 million in 2005, according to Infonetics Research. The firm projects that 91 percent of Wi-Fi phone revenue will come from dual-mode handsets by 2009, up from 42 percent in 2005.
In addition, products like Cisco's soon-to-be-acquired Orative lineup or Nortel's Dual Mode Mobile Client 3100 are enabling interaction between IP-PBX platforms and cellular phones today. However, hand-offs that would allow a user to receive a call via the cellular network and then continue that conversation as the call moves over to Wi-Fi when the user is in range of the corporate WLAN aren't yet happening.
That scenario will require partnerships between players such as wireless networking and VoIP vendors and wireless service providers, the latter of which will likely need to choose between two competing architectures—Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)—and possibly invest in new infrastructure to make it happen.
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