In-Stat: FMC adoption remains in a holding pattern

Fixed mobile convergence may hold great promise for users who desire the ability to hand-off voice calls between the wireless network and WiFi networks via a dual-mode phone; however, an In-Stat report says the technology behind FMC has outpaced business end-user adoption. In-Stat forecasts that business FMC handset connections will increase from 5.8 million in 2009 to 31 million by 2013, while 19 percent of businesses with WiFi capability use voice over WiFi. In-Stat's forecast slightly contrasts an earlier report [1] from ABI Research that argued FMC handset connections will increase from 6.3 million this year to more than 27 million by 2014. And, even though business users see the ability to seamlessly roam between wireline and wireless networks as the primary application, all FMC solutions are still nascent.

"A wide sweep of industry announcements trumpeting FMC capabilities have been made in 2009, however, our analysis shows only moderate increases in actual use, or planned use, of most applications," says David Lemelin, In-Stat analyst in a press release. "IT managers, service providers and integrators may have a good understanding of FMC's benefits, but until workers actually use its capabilities, the benefits will go unrealized."

For more:
- see the In-Stat release here [2]