Partnerships key to Vo-Wi-Fi expansion
Among the many predictions for the coming year currently being touted by online communications professionals is that wireless broadband will continue to be the fastest-growing service across North America and Western Europe, whether it is rolled out through HSDPA or LTE technology.
However, while take-up of voice over Wi-Fi (Vo-Wi-Fi) has so far proven to be encouraging within the consumer market, the corporate world is yet to be won over, with a large number of enterprises still being put off by a number of inhibiting factors and challenges.
While the early adopters of wireless communications, such as the retail and manufacturing sectors, have yet again proved to be technologically adventurous and willing to experiment with developing systems, larger corporations are continuing to adopt a more conservative and less flexible attitude to rolling out new systems.
Above all, it is the technological complexity of Vo-Wi-Fi which is proving to be the largest hindrance to businesses looking to expand their communications capabilities, new research has found.
According to a recently-published report from ABI Research, the way forward for Vo Wi Fi lies in improved partnerships between businesses aimed at overcoming the "complexity of this embryonic technology.".
"Enterprise voice over Wi-Fi is a complicated market because there are so many disparate pieces of technology that have to work together," explained ABI's vice president and research director Stan Schatt.
"That requires a lot of partnering, and some vendors are better at partnering than others."
In addition, the technology's success is likely to rely largely upon how effectively handset manufacturers and vendors and network providers are able to combine their respective expertise over the coming months.
Furthermore, the report highlighted the need for the introduction of industry-wide standards for the Vo Wi Fi sector, particularly now the US-based Wi-Fi Alliance has announced that it is not due to start its voice over Wi-Fi equipment interoperability testing until Spring 2008 at the earliest.
However, in spite of such obstacles, experts remain confident that the technology will boom in 2008 as enterprises are won over to the benefits of voice over Wi-Fi communications.
"Vo-Wi-Fi phones let [corporations] get control back when users are in the building, and they save money on cellular charges since most calls are made in the building [using the corporate network]," explained Allen Nogee, principal analyst with In-Stat.
As Mr Schatt concluded: "The future is pretty bright, but it will be a little while before voice over Wi-Fi becomes a horizontal application that is attractive to mainstream enterprises."
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