New Feature: Mobile Unified CommunicationsNew Feature: Mobile Unified Communications

We've got a new feature in the right-hand column by Bob Emmerson, our Europe-based correspondent, on Mobile UC. Bob's Euro-centric perspective is useful when it comes to this issue, because, as he notes, European 3G celllular networks are more broadly deployed than their U.S. counterparts, and so we therefore have a little better idea of how they can support Unified Communications.

We've got a new feature in the right-hand column by Bob Emmerson, our Europe-based correspondent, on Mobile UC. Bob's Euro-centric perspective is useful when it comes to this issue, because, as he notes, European 3G celllular networks are more broadly deployed than their U.S. counterparts, and so we therefore have a little better idea of how they can support Unified Communications.One very important distinction Bob makes is between fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) and Mobile UC. Basically, FMC is the enabling infrastructure that supports Mobile UC, in Bob's definition. Bob rightly points out that the real value of FMC--i.e., the ability for a "call" to move seamlessly between public and private networks without being dropped--is not so much about avoiding interruption to voice conversations as a person moves around. Instead, the value is that the person's presence status is maintained to the rest of the network, and likewise his or her view of network presence isn't disrupted.

Bob has been helping us get VoiceCon Amsterdam launched, and he knows the European market and the mobility world inside and out. I encourage you to read his feature.