Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) has been a conference fixture in various forms for many years, but for a long time little materialised. This is now changing. Today, mobile operators face a real and major threat to their revenue streams. At the same time, however, they are perfectly positioned to both preserve and grow their portion of the total telecoms spend.

Fixed and mobile convergence (FMC) engages the attention of telecoms specialists worldwide. Perhaps in emerging markets it is less of a problem as there is less of a fixed infrastructure. The tales of how one only gained a fixed-link telephone in some countries if one was related to a government minister are legendary. Perhaps, too it has always been the simpler question of when mobiles were going to reign supreme.

Now there is a secondary convergence question. The industry is no longer going to have to accommodate fixed-mobile convergence but rather the challenge of an outdoor mobile network plus an indoor Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN).

Enter Unlicensed Mobile Access

Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) allows operators to use broadband and WLAN together with a GSM/GPRS core network as an alternative to provide voice and data to the home or office.

UMA is described in a recent white paper UMA Paves The Way For Convergence as one standardised solution enabling outdoor/indoor WLAN development. The white paper is published by Northstream (downloadable from the company website at www.northstream.se ) and is without doubt a helpful contribution to the debate.

Northstream believes that UMA-assisted convergence will take place and that benefits will accrue to end users. Northstream also looks at the drivers behind adopting FMC and, in an industry notorious for its speed of technological advance, boldly outlines a time-scale for several technologies. The company stresses that its report is oriented towards the consumer rather than the business domain.

Drivers and benefits

For the authors, there are three drivers for operators to launch UMA

• improved home coverage
• a chance to take an active part in substituting fixed links with mobile; and
• to reduce churn by bundling services together.

End users can also benefit in three ways:

• cost savings on in-home telephony
• improved indoor coverage; and
• improved service usability through device convergence.

The authors note that fixed-line traffic is being substituted for UMA but also (and this reflects a Western viewpoint) substitution of fixed lines is also underway. What is more, growing broadband penetration opens up opportunities for VoIP in the home environment, thereby threatening traditional, fixed telephony usage. Of course, telephony usage is only traditional when it has been in place for some time. Emerging markets are often emerging precisely because no fixed links existed to begin with and mobiles brought telephony for the first time.

In the developing markets this question of FMC is not the most pressing: it scarcely exists. What is more, developing markets may well be able to cut out a whole stage of their telecoms development by going straight on to more advanced technologies without having to worry about integrating fixed links that never existed.

One salient fact which the Northstream authors stress is that in Western Europe and the USA almost one third of mobile voice minutes are generated at home - a fact which would appear to fly in the face of the high percentage of fixed telephony in those regions’ households. This is an important revenue stream - and as a marker for the future it should be noted that a survey of six European countries indicated that 40-60% of respondents are likely to sign up for UMA.

Benefits of FMC

Where FMC is offered it can challenge, halt and reduce customer desertion. In fact, the industry’s interest at present is focused on mobile and WLAN technologies. UMA allows for the use together of broadband and WLAN, in tandem with along with a GSM/GPRS network as an alternative for providing voice and data to home or office.

Expanding its range of forecasts, Northstream identifies IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as another advance, whether or not in combination with UMA. In fact, at present IMS does not offer the seamless handover of calls between outdoor mobile networks and indoor WLAN which industry specialists regard as essential. What will emerge is the improved handover capability standardised as Voice Call Continuity (VCC) by the 3GPP group. The time-scale shown in the Northstream report sees product development for VCC as taking place in two years time, with launch in pilot form and then commercially in Q2-Q3 2008.

Theory against Reality

Well, that is the theory. Northstream is realistic enough to appreciate the challenge posed to operators of adding UMA to existing GSM networks. A network controller dedicated to UMA as the link between WLAN and GSM core network is required. This is regarded as just another (Base Station Controller) piece of infrastructure with attendant expense/installation/maintenance.

In fact, two useful tables listing UMA equipment and the handsets supporting UMA are included in the Northstream report. This is critical for the report’s authors - no handsets means no UMA service launched by the operator(s). Much hinges on promises of availability.

One can not take away from Northstream its commitment to UMA: “…the only realistic solution for implementing a standardised, consumer-oriented FMC service providing seamless handover among mobile and WLAN networks today and in the near future.”

This report is a useful, not to say powerful, tool for anyone involved in the implementation of convergence.