FIXED MOBILE convergence (FMC), the transparent and seamless hand-off of active voice calls between cellular and Wi-Fi networks using a dual -mode phone, has yet to capture the interest of business end-user, says research from In-Stat.
Business FMC Adoption Remains a Challenge in an Increasingly Mobile World says that FMC provides a viable bridge to address the gap between legacy wireline capabilities, wireless networks, cellular services, as well as evolving VoIP and unified communications capabilities, and can be a powerful enabling tool for businesses.
"A wide sweep of industry announcements trumpeting FMC capabilities have been made in 2009, however, our analysis shows only moderate increases in actual use, or planned use, of most applications,” said In-Stat analyst David Lemelin, in the press release. “IT managers, service providers and integrators may have a good understanding of FMC’s benefits, but until workers actually use its capabilities, the benefits will go unrealized.”
Recent research by In-Stat found that:
– Business FMC handset connections will jump from 5.8 million in 2009 to 31 million by 2013.
– 19% of businesses with Wi-Fi capability use voice over Wi-Fi.
– The ability to seamlessly roam between wireline and wireless networks carries more importance among business users than other FMC solutions, but all FMC solutions remain in a relatively nascent state.
