100 Million Cellular / VoWi-Fi Phones in 2010

global

ABI Research: Annual global sales of dual-mode mobile phones — which can connect to either a conventional cellular service or a Wi-Fi network — are likely to exceed 100 million during the final year of this decade. Such dual-mode handsets have been virtually unknown to consumers until now, and have not penetrated the enterprise space to any degree either. Some of the giants of global telecommunications — notably British Telecom and Korea Telecom — plan to offer dual-mode services by the end of 2005. That could start a very large ball rolling. The advantages of dual mode handsets and services, when they arrive, can be summed up in two words: seamless and economical. Though the full spectrum of capabilities won't appear in the first generation of products, when these services are mature you will be able to start a phone call at home (where your phone connects to your residential Wi-Finetwork and then to yourbroadband Voice over IP phone service), continue it in your car (where the phone switches to your cellular provider's network), and wind it up at work,where the phone once more switches to your organization's 802.11 LAN, and VoIP. Through all this, the handset would sense the available signals and switch automatically from one network mode to another, keeping you connected and saving you (and your company) money. Voice over Wi-Fi Publ 20051109 zzz