Johannesburg, 02 Aug 2005
New technologies and standards will boost the convergence of WiFi and cellular networks around the world over the next two to three years.
Over the next two to three years, the convergence of WiFi and cellular networks is likely to gather momentum around the world as a result of the introduction of new technologies and standards such as Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) and MobileIgnite to the market.
The growing overlap between WiFi and cellular networks forms part of a broader convergence trend. Convergence has been slowly taking place as manufacturers cram increasingly more technology and functions into handsets and as operators introduce new services to take advantage of the growing functionality available from access devices and new network standards.
Already, devices have emerged that contain advanced features such as support for 3G networks, global positioning system, MPEG-4 encoders/decoders, video telephony and streaming, WiFi support, music players and push-to-talk applications.
This is the beginning of a trend that will culminate in end-to-end wireless network coverage for home and office within the next five years. End-users will be able to roam between WiMax (a metropolitan area wireless network standard), WiFi and cellular networks according to their needs.
The next wave that is likely break over the next two years is UMA, a standard for dual-mode WiFi and cellular phones that major operators and handset manufacturers are driving. A range of heavyweights are backing the technology, including Alcatel, ATT Wireless, British Telecom, Cingular, Ericsson, Kineto Wireless, Motorola, Nokia, Nortel, O2, Research in Motion, Rogers Wireless, Siemens, Sony-Ericsson and T-Mobile US.
The first UMA services and handsets should reach more advanced markets within a year.
Doug Mattheus, marketing director of Nashua Mobile
The promise of UMA is to allow end-users to switch seamlessly between WiFi and cellular networks for data and voice applications, maintaining their calls as they move from one to the other. A user would, for example, be able to make a long-distance voice call over the office WLAN or at a WiFi hotspot rather than through the cellular network, but still using the same cellphone.
The first UMA services and handsets should reach more advanced markets within a year. A report from Senza Fili Consulting, a research firm focused on wireless data technologies and services, says the worldwide subscriber base for WiFi and cellular converged services will reach 55 million by 2010.
North America will be one of the first and largest markets for UMA services, worth an estimated $1.6 billion and comprising more than 26 million subscribers by 2010. Western Europe, Japan and Korea will also be key UMA markets.
However, the success of UMA is far from assured. It has been criticised as an operator-centric standard and faces competition from another a standard proposed by the MobileIgnite alliance, which includes BridgePort, IBM, VeriSign and Airespace (recently acquired by Cisco).
MobileIgnite promotes a Session Initiation Protocol-based WiFi and cellular convergence approach, which allows users to make calls from their handsets, which are delivered over the IP network as a standards-compliant VOIP call.
While these market developments may take a while to reach SA, the work that international vendors and device manufacturers are doing on converged devices and services point to an exciting wireless future.
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