As enterprises move to take advantage of the vast potential that mobility offers, fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) is where they are turning to integrate the calling features of a desktop phone with the flexibility and freedom of a mobile device. Whether their FMC strategy takes the form of simply adding voice capability to their wireless LAN or some more sophisticated approach, they need to determine exactly what they want FMC to accomplish for them in order to choose the right solution for their needs.

 

The top priorities — whether they are gaining control over mobile phone usage, cost-cutting, or making employees more accessible and productive wherever they may be on the corporate campus and beyond — will determine the structure of an FMC solution.

 

Employees’ migration to mobile phones has been driven by convenience and accessibility. A large percentage of workers are away from their desks much more than they are at them, and one goal of an FMC solution is to make them easier to reach. This move to reach-me-anywhere mobility represents a major shift in calling patterns. It applies not only to “road warriors,” but also to “corridor warriors,” the large pool of employees who spend minimal time at their desks or who work remotely and outside of typical office hours.

 

In addition, the migration to this state of mobility has come in such a piecemeal fashion that enterprises haven’t been able to exercise any real control over it. Often, mobile phone decision-making is very decentralized, so an enterprise may have several service providers, with a mix of company-paid and employee-paid mobile phones in use at any one time. For some organizations, this becomes truly a chaotic situation, and since the cost of mobility is hitting 30 percent or more of the average enterprise’s total communications costs, they’re looking for an answer to bring control to the chaos.

 

The first FMC approach that comes to mind for most enterprises is voice over WiFi. Although this approach has some attractive advantages, it also carries with it some technology and management limitations. These issues need to be addressed before WiFi (News - Alert) can be deployed as a business solution that adequately addresses the importance of voice communications.

 

It’s hard to argue with the idea of carrying mobile voice calls over the corporate data network. Leveraging the WiFi network for mobile calling makes employees more productive and accessible. It also allows access to the corporate network from anywhere a mobile employee can get WiFi coverage. Because the network is already in place, mobile voice calls will, it seems, be free calls. For some enterprises, moving mobile usage away from a service provider is a plus as well, both from the standpoint of cost and control.

 

Implementing such an enterprise-based FMC solution, however, isn’t as easy or straightforward as one might think. Engineering a voice-grade addition to the network, in order to deal with the latency-sensitive nature of voice calls, does require additional cost. In addition, upgrading all employees to dual-mode handsets, capable of handling WiFi when it is available and cellular service when it isn’t, will involve additional cost.

 

Management is another issue, since implementing an FMC network turns an enterprise into its own mobile operator. This puts additional burden on the IT department to maintain and troubleshoot the voice portion of the network and deal with user issues. Without a carefully constructed enterprise-centric FMC solution, any cost or efficiency gains will be minimal at best.

 

Rather than create a network of their own, some enterprises are taking a different approach. They are acknowledging that there is a vast and (almost) universally available mobile voice-grade network in place, courtesy of the mobile service providers, and they are working to leverage it more effectively and achieve the same cost-cutting and control goals.

 

These enterprises are taking a cue from two of the most successful services in the wireless industry today — BlackBerry e-mail and the iPhone (News - Alert). Both of these phenomena have had their tremendous growth in part because of the superior user experience that the connection to the mobile operator provides.

 

This hybrid approach — using WiFi where appropriate but with a greater reliance on the service provider – seeks to bring the best of both worlds together in order to truly integrate the mobile phone with the enterprise network. In some cases, it may involve femtocells provided by the mobile operator, to enhance in-building coverage for the existing mobile phones.

 

Whether femtocells are part of the picture is secondary to the ability to use any device — whether single- or dual-mode — with a consistent user interface and experience, and guarantee a high level of control by the enterprise. The downside of a dual-mode device is that while it may provide a very feature-rich calling experience for users when they are within WiFi network range, it is far more limited outside of that coverage area.

 

The best solution will be the one that infuses that device with a rich feature set, accessible anywhere because of its true integration with the enterprise network.

 

A hybrid approach to FMC requires that the mobile operator remain a major part of the solution, which may require a fair amount of indulgence on the parts of both the enterprise and the carrier. Enterprises have typically seen FMC as a way to escape carriers’ bills, while many carriers have viewed FMC as a threat to their revenue. To achieve the true integration of the mobile device and the enterprise network, however, both parties will have to see the importance of their partnership.

 

A truly integrated solution that operates with either dual-mode or single-mode handsets, such as Tango Networks’ (News - Alert) Abrazo hybrid system, marries each employee’s mobile phone with the enterprise’s PBX, Centrex system, or integrated voice-data network. A single phone number can be shared by the office and mobile phone, operating according to the enterprise’s policies and the end user’s needs. Calls from either phone have access to all the advanced calling features of the enterprise network, including money-saving corporate dialing plans, along with a single, unified voice mailbox.

 

The establishment of Voice Call Continuity specifications, in which a call can be seamlessly transferred from a packet-based enterprise network to the circuit-switched cellular network, is a strong argument in favor of a hybrid solution. This allows a user to route an in-building call using the WiFi network, but once the user steps out of range of the WiFi network, the call is maintained while it is switched over to the service provider’s network. Although dual-mode mobile devices increasingly offer this capability, carriers are going to be much more accommodating in terms of pricing for those enterprises that partner with them in a hybrid solution than they will be for enterprises that attempt to cut them out of the picture.

 

One critical requirement of an integrated solution is that it also addresses the enterprise’s need for control over the calling done by its employees. In this scenario, the single phone number would be owned by the enterprise. The organization could enable usage of corporate dialing plans for calls from mobile phones and policies such as time of day or location management, as well as limits on the use of wireless data and personal calling. For those enterprises concerned with compliance issues, mobile calls could be tracked, monitored, or recorded, just as calls are from office phones.

 

Whatever form the FMC solution takes, it requires three key ingredients if it is to be successful. It must be simple, it must be able to integrate any mobile phone with the enterprise network, and must eliminate any need for users to change their behavior when it comes to operation of the mobile phone.

 

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