The term Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) has captured the minds of businesses across the telecoms industry, with many players believing that its growing presence is causing a communications revolution. However, is FMC just ‘hype’ and, if so, what are the alternative solutions?

Vendors and operators have been trying to deliver a wide variety of convergent services, which they hope will enable them to make more money out of fixed and mobile networks. But in reality, it has only been recently that FMC has started to move out of its hyperbole environment and into embryonic stages as operators and vendors try to create real solutions.

By converging fixed and mobile communication, FMC enables all-in-one communication systems that allow voice to switch between networks on an ad hoc basis using a single mobile device. However, do FMC players really believe it is the best answer for businesses that are looking to adopt the latest communications systems? Or is it really the vendors' last ditch attempt to breathe life back into their ever-decreasing profit margins?

In today's busy office environment the majority of workers still have to juggle a desk-based phone as well as their mobile, which is not only inconvenient but a costly duplication, and an inconvenience as even staff who work on the move have to give out multiple phone numbers. As FMC promotes a single dual handset that can be used anywhere at anytime it seems like the perfect solution. However, whether it does work, integrating mobile and fixed-line networks is a complex matter and there are far simpler options already on the market that provide a single handset solution - the mobile!

Until now, mobility was designed as an extension to the office-based hardware telephony system, being perceived as too expensive to handle all office calls. But now it is the fixed-to-mobile element that is complex and expensive. So why not go ALLmobile? By using an ALLmobile phone solution we can change the very nature of office communication without the need for fixed-lines.

Similar to when network-enabled voicemail was launched in the 90's it killed the office hardware business. Back then each office had a tape recorder in the reception which became superseded by network-enabled voicemail. Today there is an ALLmobile system that can supersede the office PBX, turning the business telephony industry (selling mostly hardware) into a service industry.

It doesn't have to be expensive to introduce an ALLmobile system because employees already have mobiles. Calls made to the office

number are handled in the same way as with an ordinary telephone system; the only difference being that they are directed to the user's mobile phone over a GSM network of choice, rather than over complicated fixed-line telephony networks to a desk-based phone.

There is no need for separate phone numbers for office and mobile as users have just one number, and the features users require from their desk phones are provided on their mobiles. This means businesses no longer need an office switchboard, a communications room for equipment, service and maintenance contracts, telecoms engineers, telecoms equipment and fixed handsets on every desk.

The simple-to-use ALLmobile systems can be provisioned and activated instantly via the web in less than ten minutes. Put bluntly, an ALLmobile solution eradicates all the complexity and expense of a fixed-line, and therefore an FMC solution. Handover between fixed and mobile is inherent - because it's ALLmobile.

Additionally, ALLmobile systems solve the problems that all companies face when buying/changing phone systems: complexity, high upfront costs, hidden ongoing costs, high dependency on technical specialists, costly ongoing upgrades and, most importantly, very expensive monthly bills as their employees are increasingly mobile and incoming calls are redirected to them at full mobile rates.

GoHello identified this ALLmobile trend early and invented an innovative solution that makes traditional telephony systems (analogue and VoIP) obsolete while removing the high costs of mobility and offering full PBX functionality. Despite FMC being a concept or ‘hype' for over ten years, its penetration is likely to be as little as 8.8% of the total business subscriber base by 2012 (according to Informa) and it remains to be seen if businesses will want to replace existing infrastructure with complex FMC solutions.

It is far easier to achieve mobility without high level infrastructure investment. So instead of talking about FMC let's talk about accelerating the move to mobile.

GoHello is offering an end of summer offer for all New Business readers, with a FREE trial and FREE setup of its ALLmobile phone system. For more information please visit: www.GoHello.com/new-business [1]