Posted by Barlow Keener

More significant than the iPhone (nothing could be that important…) this week there were several events that announced to the general public that fixed mobile convergence is hitting the mainstream.  The interesting point is that is not exactly as FMC was anticipated back in 1990. In 1990, PCS “Personal Communication System” was touted as the future of the cell phone.  During this early era, we saw videos of enterprise users walking into their building and having their cell phones move over to the company PBX.    Today as FMC becomes a reality, some the enterprise play is taking off as envisioned. But the real move is with cell phone equipment vendors and some service providers like T-Mobile and AT&T moving to WiFi.   

T-Mobile announced this week (did you see this or was it white noise lost in the powerful iPhone buzz?) its new FMC service: HotSpot@Home.  Using a dual mode UMA phone and WiFi phone, T-Mobile set the service up to switch to WiFi and VoIP whenever the user has access to WiFi.  For an extra $10 all domestic calls are unlimited – not counted on the wireless plan.  Not counting minutes is a huge plus to the paying user.  The extra ARPU of $10 less the cost of taking a phone off the network and eliminating roaming costs could make it well worth the move for T-Mobile.   In fact, T-Mobile may be executing a plan to head off the next move by the early adopter users who are starting to download Skype or other VoIP services and are moving off the T-Mobile voice cell network without paying an extra $10.  The new trend is cell phones with WiFi.   Early adopter gadget lovers I know are using products like the Motorola 8525 and not buying the provider’s internet plan but using the phone’s WiFi to access the internet for email, web, and unlimited VoIP calls.   The other added benefit is that VoIP is easy access to low cost international calls.

GigaOm and the WSJ have good coverage of the T-Mobile announcement.  GigaOm reports that the T-Mobile VoIP service works as well or better than cellular.