provides market forecasts extending out to 2010.
According to ABI Research senior analyst Philip Solis, VoWiFi is indeed the wave of the future. "Cellular coverage is far from ideal indoors [and] most people would greatly prefer to have one phone that works just as well in the depths of a large building as it does outdoors," he says.
Moreover, says Solis, VoWiFi provides a cheaper way for carriers to transmit calls, and it provides "natural synergies and extra revenue opportunities where there are linkages joining wireless and wireline companies such as SBC and Cingular. So it's a tool for bundling that also provides cheaper services to consumers."
As the study points out, VoWiFi has received several recent boosts. BellSouth, for example, has announced impending field trials of a converged system in the enterprise environment, and SBC has announced its intention to roll out VoWiFi to consumers by the end of 2006. Also, although British Telecom has selected Bluetooth, not 802.11, for its coming Bluephone VoIP service, Salis sees this as "an interim step" towards VoWiFi. "The Bluephone is their precursor to a fully Voice over WiFi solution," he said, "which would have a much better range than the Bluetooth radio installed in most mobile handsets."
Further details on the study, titled "Voice over WiFi: Market Dynamics for Enterprise and Consumer VoWiFi, and Dual-mode Cellular/VoWiFi Handsets," are available from
ABI's website.
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