Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Wi-Fi: Seamless Mobility -- With Strings

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 06:15:47 -0400

Wi-Fi: Seamless Mobility -- With Strings
By Carlo Longino, Tue Jul 27 20:30:00 GMT 2004

Motorola's pumping up its vision for the mobile enterprise, but its use
of closed systems and proprietary hardware doesn't bode well for its
success.

The company announced the expected CN620 WLAN/GSM handset today as part
of its "Enterprise Seamless Mobility solution," so called because it
allows voice calls to be handed off from an in-office WLAN to the
wide-area cellular network. The announcement will undoubtedly get a lot
of play because of the huge interest in adding Wi-Fi to mobile handsets,
but the devil's in the details.Like a similar system NTT DoCoMo
announced a few weeks ago, the Moto system, which was developed with
Avaya and Proxim, requires proprietary hardware, and can't be used on
just any WLAN. Outside the office, it falls back only on GPRS for data
-- not that you could use it at a hotspot anyway, since it only works
with the 802.11a standard. And if your business takes you outside the
US, forget it -- the CN260 only functions in the GSM 850 and 1900
bands.Of course this is an early effort, but it's unlikely to be a
particularly successful one.

VoWi-Fi sounds like a great idea for corporate environments, and it
certainly has a lot of benefits -- but at what cost? Companies with
existing 802.11b or g networks either have to implement an additional,
incompatible wireless network, or scrap any existing investments and
switch all their client devices over to 802.11a. Any potential savings
in phone bills would be weighed down by the huge capital outlay
required.At the end of the day, this really is just a wireless PBX
system. While it allows for fast data access over the in-office WLAN,
it's got very little to offer the mobile worker, apart from the benefit
of a single number and handoffs from the office network to the GSM net
-- both of which aren't a concern to somebody using only a mobile
handset for their work phone. It's telling that the companies haven't
signed up a carrier to go along with this service, as they don't have
much to gain from it, and can better compete for corporate accounts by
offering volume discounts and building on their own advantages -- a wide
choice of handsets, international coverage, faster outside data and no
pricey in-office equipment to buy.Companies looking to mobilize their
workforces would do much better to look to something like the new
Wi-Fi/GSM iPaq that HP and T-Mobile announced Monday. A Moto exec tells
Wi-Fi Net News that the iPaq "doesn't do VOIP except with a softphone."
Frankly, who cares? The fact that the device can be used on any 802.11b
hotspot and with a firm's existing equipment instantly makes it a better
option. If companies are really concerned about cutting costs, they can
load a Skype or Vonage softphone on there -- and use it both in the
office and on other Wi-Fi networks.

Device manufacturers, just like carriers, are trying
to figure out how to integrate Wi-Fi with wide-area
mobile networks. It's obvious, even at this early
stage, that the best solutions will be those built
around openness, ease of use and compatibility
with existing gear. Going with proprietary gear
and closed systems isn't going to get anywhere.

http://www.thefeature.com/article?articleid=100923&ref=2101644

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