consulting, business planning and market analysis on wireless data technologies
 

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Senza Fili Newsletter

January 2005 issue

I have always been skeptical about voice over Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi was not designed with voice applications in mind, and cellular and fixed voice networks are sufficiently cheap and ubiquitous that it is difficult to see why someone would drive to the nearest hotspot to make a call (unless roaming internationally).

All this is changing rapidly. UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access—see below) specifications make Wi-Fi and cellular convergence cost-effective and attractive to mobile operators. They can use their current core networks to support Wi-Fi voice and data access and retain control over subscribers calls without undue risk of cannibalization. At the same time, UMA enables them to offer improved residential coverage and to accelerate the trend towards fixed-to-wireless substitution.

NTT DoCoMo N900iL, a WiFi and 3G FOMA phone. Source NTT DoCoMo

Commitment by mobile operators is in turn creating a demand for Wi-Fi and cellular handsets that manufacturers will strive to meet. Wi-Fi is also becoming a more voice- and battery-friendly technology thanks to 802.11e and WMM (Wi-Fi Multimedia), which enable QoS and scheduled access. Finally, subscriber demand for Wi-Fi and cellular converged services is growing in parallel with the increase in broadband, Wi-Fi, and VoIP penetration.

The only missing piece right now is the handset. Most Wi-Fi and cellular phones are not suitable for the wide consumer market, either because they are too heavy, or have a short battery life, or are too expensive.

Things are changing quickly though. CSR has announced a Wi-Fi chip that sells for less than $8. NTT DoCoMo is selling a Wi-Fi and cellular handset (N900iL) that has a battery life comparable to 3G handsets and a similar form factor.

We expect tier one vendors to announce UMA-enabled Wi-Fi and cellular phones soon, and this will open the market for Wi-Fi and cellular converged services—with UMA likely to be the first solution to be implemented in the residential market, but definitely with more to come.

The creation last week of the MobileIGNITE alliance, which includes BridgePort, IBM, VeriSign and Airespace (recently acquired by Cisco) and promotes a SIP-based Wi-Fi and cellular convergence approach, is an indication of the high level of activity and innovation in this area.

BT in the UK is the only service provider that has so far announced a UMA deployment, scheduled to launch in the spring of 2005, initially with a Bluetooth handset and with Wi-Fi handsets as soon as they will become available. In the US, T-Mobile is the operator that stands to gain most from UMA and we expect it to be the fist to launch UMA services to improve its residential coverage and to complement its Wi-Fi hotspot strategy.

Mobility is rapidly becoming the key focus of attention in the WiMAX space. The new 802.16e specifications will enable WiMAX to support mobile access (users will be able to keep their connection as they move at several miles per hour), but support for mobility is not yet here and will not be included in the first generation of WiMAX products.

When will mobility—and devices that will make it possible—be supported by WiMAX? Who will be most likely to deploy WiMAX networks that will offer mobile broadband connectivity? How will fixed and mobile access coexist in WiMAX networks? Is there a need for yet another mobile wireless broadband technology, alongside UMTS, HSDPA, EV-DO, EV-DV, UMTS-TDD, FLASH-OFDM?

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UMA allows GSM mobile operators to offer fully converged connectivity using their existing core network. Subscribers with a UMA-enabled handset will be able to seamlessly roam from the cellular network to a WLAN, maintaining their call as they move from one to the other. When using the WLAN interface, calls are routed through a UMA network controller (UNC) which has a functional role equivalent to that of the base station controller in the cellular radio access network.