FMCA boasts of momentum as DIY convergence emerges

摘要

The Fixed-Mobile Convergence Alliance (FMCA) has taken credit for spurring a "massive turnaround" in vendor backing for the FMC concept, shortly after announcing that the combined customer base of its operator members now accounts for 500 million, or a fifth, of the world's telecoms users (see box, "FMC: Key developments"). But while the growing availability of dual-mode cellular/WLAN phones and other FMC technologies could help operators realise their convergence strategies, they might equally enable them to build their own FMC services independently. The FMCA forecasts that more than 20 convergence-enabled dual-mode cellular/WLAN handsets will be launched in 2006 by tier-one handset vendors such as Motorola, Nokia and Samsung.