03 August, 2004: Siemens has used the launch of a BlackBerry-powered cellphone to introduce a new business group focusing on fixed-mobile markets.
Unveiling what it claimed was the first mobile phone with BlackBerry capabilities, Siemens said it now intended to vigorously target the fixed mobile convergence (FMC) market opportunity - particularly in the corporate sector - through its new Communications Group. "The steadily growing demand for unified communication solutions will dramatically boost the need for phones that unite a broad range of office functionalities with convenient access to e-mail", said CEO of the new group Lothar Pauly. "We anticipate strong growth in this segment, which we expect to account for 20% of the wireless market by the year 2006."
Arguing that introduction of its first BlackBerry mobile was much more than just a high-end addition to its cellphone portfolio, Pauly said that the new group would consolidate Siemens' fixed-network solutions and its wireless competencies. Siemens Communications officially opens its doors for business on 1 October.
Other equipment vendors are likewise enthusiastic in their public commitment to the much hyped, but as yet embryonic, FMC market. Alcatel, Ericsson and Motorola have famously signed up to BT's 'Bluephone' FMC project. Earlier this year, trade and non-trade press reports also had vendors such as Motorola, Nokia and Nortel - along with unspecified others - setting up the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) initiative to develop FMC standards.
The UMA was also referenced by BT in July in the announcement of its initial chairing of the then newly-formed Fixed-Mobile Convergence Alliance (FMCA). On that occasion BT said that it, and Alcatel, Ericsson and Motorola, were developing an early implementation of UMA. The companies apparently agreed to revise (delay) Bluephone launch plans to "…encourage the introduction of the new standard and to help the development of the market." BT is currently expecting to commence trials of the new standard in December, with a Bluephone market launch being targeted for Spring 2005.
Open standards are probably a must-have if FMC is really going to go anywhere. There seems no shortage of initiatives and organisations willing, able and even anxious to drive FMC standardisation forward. As well as the UMA effort, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has included FMC in the remit of its next generation network (NGN) Focus Group, due to report in 2005. "One area to be addressed is the concept dubbed 'nomadicity', which will give fixed line and mobile users completely seamless communication" according to the ITU's press statement in May 2004.
Other relevant standards work here is the 3GPP/3GPP2 IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute's Telecommunications and Internet Protocol Harmonisation over Networks (TIPHON). And, coming at this from left field so to speak, is the Fixedline Multimedia Messaging Service (F-MMS) Forum.
John Williamson |
