US : For the past few days we have been involved in yet another fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) conference - they are coming thick and fast these days.

Inset is the author Angel Dobardziev, a Senior Analyst and Service Manager for Ovum.

The intense activity in the past few months appears to be crystallising a number of important issues for industry players, despite the fact that we are yet to see true seamless FMC devices.

BT was again represented at full strength, with two separate presentations (from Ryan Jarvis and Steven Evans). It was good to learn that the access points for Project Bluephone, which will be launched this spring, will also be WiFi (as well as Bluetooth) enabled. This is a wise move, as it will enable Bluephone customers to upgrade to dual-band WiFi/cellular phones, as they become available (at reasonable prices) in 2006, without having to get another access point.

Vodafone, who also had a representative speaking, did not convince us as having a clear FMC strategy, besides pushing its existing mobile offerings as a way of delivering convergence. But then again, for a large mobile-only operator with major 3G commitments, 'wait and see what happens' may be the most sensible option - for now.

It's clear that FMC is an opportunity for fixed-only operators (such as BT) to defend themselves against mobile substitution. It is also clear that FMC will lead to cost savings for integrated operators (such as FT and Telecom Italia), as it will enable them to remove organisation duplications by bringing together duplicated network management, marketing, CRM, billing and distribution operations.

But what does FMC offer the end-users? And how do you communicate the value to an ordinary user? Addressing this will be essential if FMC is to avoid another false start. The fact that the speaker on this topic completely avoided the issue indicates that we as an industry have yet to find a way to create strong, simple and clear messages about the value of FMC to end users.

Having attended many FMC events and heard many speakers elaborate on this issue, we firmly believe that, for end users, FMC will have to be centred around continuity of experience (not seamless mobility or session continuity, although they mean the same), by enabling them to have voice, messaging and content uninterrupted by the limitations of one access technology. I can already hear mobile operators saying that their 3G networks will be able to do exactly that. Maybe, but at a cost, and with bandwidth limitations that will not be acceptable to all users for all types of applications.

One final snippet worth mentioning came from a US operator, which found that the majority of users polled in a survey found the idea of FMC phones compelling, but 80% thought that without seamless handover, it isn't worth bothering. If this really turns out to be the case (but beware of surveys of hypothetical offerings), it will be a vote of confidence for UMA-based FMC devices, and reduce the opportunity for CTP and early SIP devices.

Data Application Suite Selected to Enhance Datang's TD-SCDMA Solution