Fixed Mobile Convergence - Fmc

Fixed Mobile Convergence, or FMC for short, describes the trend towards connectivity between fixed and wireless, or mobile, telecommunications networks and – perhaps rather confusingly – any fixed network infrastructure that allows integration with mobile phone handsets. In the first sense, a mobile phone effectively comes an extension to a corporate PBX, or "Private Branch eXchange", which also includes landline extensions, whilst in the second, a mobile phone can be used seamlessly on a mobile phone network or an a corporate LAN, or "Local Area Network". Mobile phones are rapidly becoming the phones of choice, even if users are within reach of a landline telephone. In fact, anything up to 80% of mobile phone calls are made, or received when users are at work or at home and could utilise landline telephony if they so desired.

Fixed Mobile Convergence Features, Benefits & Considerations

Telecommunications end users increasingly find themselves part of one or more communities, and there is increasing demand for communication and sharing content between communities, regardless of any underlying technology. This is essentially what Fixed Mobile Convergence is all about; the technology breaks the links between telephone number, network and device, such that end users can enjoy the same communication features and functions, Internet access, etc. from any location, at any time, with any device.

FMC provides a simplified method of communication, but, nevertheless, increases the availability of resources and the productivity of end users. From the point of view of the end user, communication and content sharing is fast and seamless, with the advantage of a single, amalgamated bill from a single service provider. From the point of view of an operator, the ability to offer services that combine voice and data transmission on common fixed or mobile networks, allows investment and operational costs to be reduced, increases the uniqueness of the service(s) on offer and allows customers to be retained.

Obviously, the ultimate goal of FMC is to provide optimal, seamless transmission of voice and data, regardless of the network – PSTN ("Public Switched Telephone Network"), GSM (originally "Groupe Spécial Mobile", now "Global System for Mobile") and IP ("Internet Protocol") telecommunications are all included – device and location of the end user.

The immediate focus of the technology, however, is the provision of a single device that can connect to and be switched between, wired and wireless LAN and WAN ("Wide Area Network") topologies. This basically involves a mobile phone handset which can be connected via VoIP ("Voice over Internet Protocol"), to a LAN on one hand, and, via a mobile phone connection to a WAN on the other. Essentially, the handset operates like any other mobile phone handset until such a time that it can be carried by a bridging technology, such as "WiFi" ("Wireless Fidelity", a colloquial name for IEEE 802.11 compatible devices and systems) or Bluetooth®, to an access point, and hence to VoIP. If a user moves out of range of the access point again, the call switches back from VoIP to the mobile phone network, without dropping the call.