Enterprise FMC Rush in AP has Just Started

By: Claudio Castelli, Ovum
(Business News & Technology News, 21 Jul 2008)

For different reasons, global telcos are starting to offer enterprise fixed¨Cmobile convergence (FMC) services in Asia-Pacific. The launch of Business One by Vodafone Australia and BT's plans to expand its Corporate Fusion in Asia-Pacific are starting to address the high demand for voice over Wi-Fi (WoWiFi) in the region. This is increasing the pressure on incumbents to also consider the FMC path.

As a fixed carrier, BT doesn't lose when services shift from the public mobile networks into enterprise WiFi networks. As a result, it is increasing its presence in the enterprise FMC market and is now extending its Corporate Fusion product to Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea.

Taking advantage of its international coverage, BT is initially targeting multi-site organisations, linking MNCs' branch offices in these countries and supporting their mobile users in these places. Through a client-based solution that supports both GSM and CDMA, and is agnostic with regard to PBX vendor and mobile operator, BT will potentially reduce costs as employees travel between different offices. The solution will allow mobile devices to access the local corporate network for making international calls instead of relying on outside roaming support, addressing a major MNC cost concern. Our survey research has shown that the biggest gap between MNCs' mobility priorities and service providers' capabilities is on international roaming costs.

In contrast to BT, Vodafone doesn't have a fixed infrastructure. However, Vodafone sees the FMC path as an opportunity to differentiate against its rivals in Australia and increase its presence in the enterprise market in this country, which is currently small. This is worth the risk of some cannibalisation. Vodafone joined Cisco and Research In Motion (RIM) to launch the Business One product. The package will be totally managed by Vodafone and, unlike BT's solution, will focus on SMEs. It will offer a single point of contact for telecommunications services including fixed and mobile, voice and data, and equipment. The fixed broadband connection will be provided through an agreement with fixed operator AAPT.

If there are great opportunities for market entrants, on the other side the dominant mobile operators normally see FMC as a contra-revenue threat and are delaying their entry into this market. However, with a broader range of enterprise premises solutions available and new services being launched by their rivals, we expect incumbents will sooner or later also release their FMC products.

At the moment, while the dominant mobile operators struggle to find compelling business cases, enterprises also see opportunities. Our research shows that more than 30 percent of the SMEs in the region have plans to use voice over WiFi and 15 percent to adopt dual-mode phones in the next two years. It also shows that 70 percent of MNCs expect to be using dual-mode phones within two years. This suggests that many companies are willing to extend PBX features and functionality to mobile devices and reduce their mobile costs while in the office.

The difference is that now enterprises have another option. While in the past they had to manage and deploy their FMC solutions by themselves or rely only on vendors and SIs, now there are service providers willing to support them.

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