Report: VOIP a wedge issue in WLAN-3G Mobile convergence

New York, Feb. 15, 2005 -- (MobileVillage) -- There's an inevitability about the convergence of WLAN and 3G mobile, but the business case that will drive this integration forward has split the wireless industry -- with VOIP the primary cause of the rift, according to a new report from the subscription research service Unstrung Insider.

The report, titled "Converge This! WLAN-3G Mobility," analyzes the business case, the service case, and the technical case (with reference to standards and handsets) for the integration of 802.11 wireless LAN with mobile network services.

"The major issue dominating the sector is how, and whether or not, VOIP calls over wireless LAN should be integrated into the mobile network call model," says the report's author, Unstrung Insider Chief Analyst Gabriel Brown. "Offloading calls to VOIP has its attractions, but operators are lukewarm on subsidizing handsets that could be used to bypass their networks."

The resolution of this issue is critical to the ongoing integration of multiple radio access networks, including WiMax, into a single converged core network. "Rather than straightforward VOIP offload, converged applications and rich-call services -- data services over an IMS core -- represent the best long-term opportunity for 802.11-to-3G convergence," adds Brown.

Among the report's key findings:

• Corporate VOIP is the major early application for converged mobile and WLAN services because operators and customers are comfortable with the business proposition.
• Fundamental business concerns will inhibit consumer/residential VOIP over converged 3G and WLAN devices; hotspot VOIP over converged devices is even more challenging.
• There's no evidence of an impending mobile capacity crunch; on the contrary, 3G carriers have Erlangs to spare.
• Texas Instruments and CSR have the most aggressive development schedules for mobile-device 802.11 chipsets and are poised to grab a lead in the market.
• An 802.11 attach rate of between 8 percent and 10 percent in the mobile handset market by 2008 -- amounting to 64 to 80 million units per year -- although many vendors consider this optimistic.
  

Converge This! is available as part of an annual subscription (12 monthly issues) to Unstrung Insider, priced at $1,350. (To subscribe, see the unstrung web site.) Individual reports are available for $900.

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