T-Mobile USA, Inc., and enterprise wireless LAN vendor Meru Networks
have teamed up to bring fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) to enterprise
customers.
By using unlicensed mobile access (UMA) technology it allows users of T-Mobile devices tto roam between outdoor cellular towers and indoor Wi-Fi networks without call interruption.
By using unlicensed mobile access (UMA) technology it allows users of T-Mobile devices tto roam between outdoor cellular towers and indoor Wi-Fi networks without call interruption.
T-Mobile has joined Meru's WINS (Wireless Interoperability and Network Solutions) Partner Program, and the two companies have completed interoperability testing of UMA-equipped T-Mobile devices with Meru enterprise WLANs. The testing verified seamless "handoffs" between Meru WLANs and the T-Mobile cellular network. The companies have also agreed to conduct joint marketing and sales activities.
T-Mobile is the first national carrier with an FMC offering targeted at enterprises, and the first to leverage UMA technology, which provides GSM/GPRS mobile devices with access to Meru enterprise WLANs over unlicensed spectrum bands. T-Mobile's dual-mode lineup includes devices from BlackBerry, Nokia and Samsung.
A January 2008 report from New York-based ABI Research, "The Voice Over
Wi-Fi Ecosystem," identified Meru's virtual cell, zero-handoff
architecture as the WLAN approach best suited for efficiently handling
enterprise voice calls without disruption or loss of quality,
particularly for roaming users. The report cited Meru as having "a
significant advantage because, with all access points operating on a
single channel, no handoffs are required. This eliminates the problem
of latency, or delay, typically associated with roaming."
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