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January 08, 2008
FMC is not a Carrier Play!
FMC is not a Carrier Play!
Internal to pulvermedia, I have had to contend with some friends who have their ears to the community like I do. They believe that Fixed Mobile Convergence is a discussion to have with carriers based on their contacts with various vendors.
I strongly disagree. Right now we are seeing the convergence occur at the management level. I have already talked about Verizon’s integration of their two lines of business, but at att (I like that visual text) the want to “own Orange”. By owning “Orange” they are not talking about France Telecom and its affiliates, they are talking about having the customers of Cingular (whose logo was orange) to see themselves as att subscribers. Unlike Verizon’s executive bios, which showed a return to the fixed LOB by wireless execs. The att exec bios read like a evolution took place, “we also had the the strategy of wireless in our plans and now it is complete” is a good paraphrase.
But even with the integration. The story is not going to be fixed vs wireless battlefront. No one was the munitions. The story is in serving the enterprise. This is where the battle will rage not internally but externally. Wireless has slammed around in the consumer market with little to be gained in the near future. Even with the use of femtocells in the home, little can be gained that can’t be done with just billing rules, and worse yet the set-top box is going to be the more important drive in the consumer triple play.
But for the Enterprise, a lot is to be gained in the meet point. The value proposition is not measured in cost savings. But in the work flow. I would submit that email fundamentally shortened the time line for projects to be completed. The ability to make that email mobile is going to have more than an incremental impact in the workflow. So if we just got office email in the hands of the employees that would be good.
However, normally the call to action involves more than email. It requires conference calls, inputs into systems and edits in websites, documents, presentations and spreadsheets. This is the opportunity that lies ahead.
My own personal bias is that the value that iPhone brought with a full browser is a teaser to the demand we will see for a fully integrated wireless Internet. And that is where the battlefront will be for FMC.
Posted by carl at January 8, 2008 12:47 PM
Comments
FMC will run into slow market penetration until WiMax is rolled out in second half 2008. Otherwise, the data network does not have enough coverage to switch over to the cell network and vis-versa for Voice Call Continuity (VCC). And, WiMax is limited by chip manufacturing industry which has cut budgets back due to the not-yet-called-but-likely-u.s.-recession.
Thus, there are powerful market forces at play here due to extensive equipment infrastructure required, regardless of what "features users really want."
Although, I do enjoy the UTStarcom FMC Business Case 'video' linked at http://fixed-mobileconvergence.net
Both the business case and the end user case is shown in this video: business side desires "reduction of subscriber churn" and end users want reception everwhere (in addition to next generation IMS features).
Posted by: JustinU at January 9, 2008 06:15 AM