Mobile UC replaces FMC

After last week's editor's corner [1], I receive a number of emails from companies that were in the fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) world that are now reimagining/rebranding themselves into a Mobile Unified Communications camp. 

In many ways, Mobile UC makes a lot more sense. FMC first emerged as being the technology to bring dual-mode WiFi/cellular together, especially given the complexities of handing off calls between corporate and cellular networks. Later, the concept of "a single number, all devices" worked its way into FMC, a concept equally applicable to landline phones and UC find-me/follow-me services. 

Finally, people started talking about carrier FMC and enterprise FMC as two different animals, and extending corporate PBX functionality out to mobile handsets. Femtocell-based connectivity seems to fall into the carrier-based camp, while anything touching a business goes into enterprise FMC.

Businesses want everything unified. Mobile phones need to indicate presence--a definite UC attribute--as well as operate as a seamless extension of the PBX.   More importantly, they want a single point of management of resources. Setting up FMC and then having to meld it into a UC setup (however either can be defined) is less desirable than thinking about a UC umbrella of functions, with mobile FMC a module/function you can turn on if/when you need it.

As Dan O'Shea and I work through the details for FierceMarket's "Unified Communications Summit @ NXTcomm [2]," executive summit, it is clear we have to put the role of mobility and how it plays with UC on the agenda. Companies want single-number/any device contact baked into the UC solution because the mobile phone is often the default device for doing business. (Whether or not the concept puts desktop handsets out of business is a discussion for a different day--it's Monday, I'm not 100 percent sold on the idea). --Doug Mohney [3]