Merging WiFi VoIP Into Cellular Service

Anonymous Coward writes "The New York Times (registration required) reports that Motorola, Proxim and Avaya are expected to announce today that they will jointly develop technology to allow wireless communications to jump between networks without interruption. This appears to involve making use of WiFi for phone service where it's available, thus converting WiFi hotspots into congestion relief for overloaded cellular networks, and, of course, making cell phones into WiFi terminals."

Comments

Re:Death of UMTS

[Mwongozi]

WLAN just doesn't have the range. A 3G or even GPRS cell can cover many miles, WLAN hasn't a hope of ever getting that range omnidirectionally. (Is that a word?)

GSM operators nightmare � or not?

[Eminence]

Cellular operators perceive WiFi as a threat, because there has been long feared that cheap, community operated wireless networks ("guerilla networks" in corporate speak) would wipe out operators own WiFi offerings. What seems to anger operators most is that the whole concept of local wireless networks is not in line with the operators' idea of monetizing every single byte transmitted over the air. Also operators feared that someone would come up with an VoIP-WLAN phone that would offer very cheap voice calls in the WLAN range. WLAN networks.

Now the impact of this new device (and system) that this partnership is going to produce depends on whether it would be oriented towards operators (and would thus require deep integration with GSM operator's infrastructure) or rather corporate customers (and would therefore be more like an software over-the-Internet VPN solution but also for voice communication). I think the first option is more likely and then the operators would be in position to control to some extent the WiFi market with local WLAN operators reduced to being just local bandwidth providers. The most important part of making this work would be the SIM card (or its equivalent) identifying the user and interfaces connecting a registry of users to authentication mechanisms of various visited networks. Most of that is what GSM operators already have.

Not sure this'll ever get off the ground.

[terrencefw]

Am I the only one who suspects that this well never really get off the ground because of the fact that nobody seems to be able to conform to standards any more? It seems like a good idea in principle, but I'm sure that one of the players named above, or some other company will muddy the waters with some proprietary standard to enable them to leverage their intellectual property and put an end to the show for everybody else.

Re:Death of UMTS

[Zarhan]

This is hardly the death of UMTS. Of course, I'm an engineer, so the techical terms may not be the same ones used by the public at large.

Anyway, in upcoming UMTS versions (starting from rel 5 I believe), the UMTS network can actually use WLAN as an access technology. It can also use xDSL, for that matter. The "old" WCDMA is of course still there.

The basic idea is to converge all those different networks so that telcos that act also as ISPs don't need duplicate systems for user accounts and stuff. This way there can also be easier integration (access your mail account from your phone WITHOUT any hassle -> everything is configured into your subscriber SIM card) and stuff like that.

Actually, the official position for most telcos deploying UMTS (as in "WCDMA") seems to be that they are back to their original plans. Original meaning the same plans they had before the IT boom. The boom was supposed to speed things up a bit => well, it did not, and everyone lost some money, but what the hell, show must go on.

(Disclaimer: I may have myself confused some of the terminology above. Currently I'm 100% certain only of the "IMT-2000" umbrella term :))