VOIP a Wedge Issue in WLAN-3G Mobile Convergence

There's a cold, hard 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 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 is that there's no evidence of an impending mobile capacity crunch; on the contrary, 3G carriers have Erlangs to spare.

The reports authors estimate 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."

Posted to the site on 17th February 2005