FMC: It took a long time to get going, but will it go fast?
Posted: Thu Dec 05, 2024 10:05 am
It is hard to believe, but the concept of a convergent network (Fixed Mobile Convergence, or FMC), which would combine the advantages of fixed and mobile communications, is already - no more, no less - almost 20 years old! People started thinking about it on a global scale back in the late 1990s. The first attempts by vendors and operators to create corresponding software and hardware solutions date back to the early 2000s, but this solution did not produce an explosive growth in popularity. The reason for such a slow "entry into the market", which is not very typical for the IT industry, can be called both the unpreparedness of the market at the early stage of the emergence of FMC (for example, not such a wide distribution of corporate mobile communications), and the inactive position of operators, who at that time were betting on other types of services.
Nevertheless, the concept was not curtailed and still qatar phone number resource waited for its "finest hour". According to J'son & Partners Consulting (report "Convergence of mobile and fixed communications (FMC) in the world and in Russia: current state and prospects", 2015), during 2010-2014, the number of corporate FMC users in Russia grew by an average of 22% per year - and as a result, by the end of 2014, the total FMC subscriber base reached approximately 200 thousand combined mobile and fixed-line numbers, and by the end of 2018, the agency's analysts predicted an increase to more than 300 thousand. This was primarily due to the changed economic situation in the country and a change in priorities among telecom industry players, forcing operators to look for new business models - including in the convergent services niche.
What is FMC?
200 and even 300 thousand users - of course, for now these are only small shares of the total number of corporate users of fixed and mobile communications services. But the positive trend is seen not only - and not even so much - in the growth of the subscriber base, but in the appearance on the market of an increasing number of players and, accordingly, a greater variety of offers.
What is meant by the term FMC? In various sources, Fixed Mobile Convergence is considered as:
— (definition recorded by Wikipedia) a technological solution at the junction of different types of communication networks, which allows the creation of a single network of office and mobile phones with a common short numbering plan;
— the organization of the internal corporate network itself with uniform rules for managing calls on office and mobile phones;
— (marketing definition) an operator service that combines fixed and mobile communications with a convenient and economical single number plan.
In general, FMC is now considered the initial milestone of the Unified Communications segment, which will include not only voice communications, but also other types of services: video conferencing, collaboration, etc.
Benefits of Merging Fixed and Mobile Telecommunications
The advantages of the FMC service, arising from its technological and organizational specifics, include the following:
— Convenient communication between fixed and mobile devices in the corporate network based on short (with a prefix) internal numbers; including the creation of a forwarding algorithm. As a result — more effective communications, faster business decision-making.
— Inclusion of remote employees into the general corporate network, the ability to quickly deploy a “field” office without additional communication costs.
— Special preferential rates within the corporate network. As a rule, calls between employees from a landline to a mobile phone and in any other variations are not charged, even if the subscribers are in internal roaming.
— The manager has access to routing management, control and statistics of connections made through the corporate network from a mobile phone.
Nevertheless, the concept was not curtailed and still qatar phone number resource waited for its "finest hour". According to J'son & Partners Consulting (report "Convergence of mobile and fixed communications (FMC) in the world and in Russia: current state and prospects", 2015), during 2010-2014, the number of corporate FMC users in Russia grew by an average of 22% per year - and as a result, by the end of 2014, the total FMC subscriber base reached approximately 200 thousand combined mobile and fixed-line numbers, and by the end of 2018, the agency's analysts predicted an increase to more than 300 thousand. This was primarily due to the changed economic situation in the country and a change in priorities among telecom industry players, forcing operators to look for new business models - including in the convergent services niche.
What is FMC?
200 and even 300 thousand users - of course, for now these are only small shares of the total number of corporate users of fixed and mobile communications services. But the positive trend is seen not only - and not even so much - in the growth of the subscriber base, but in the appearance on the market of an increasing number of players and, accordingly, a greater variety of offers.
What is meant by the term FMC? In various sources, Fixed Mobile Convergence is considered as:
— (definition recorded by Wikipedia) a technological solution at the junction of different types of communication networks, which allows the creation of a single network of office and mobile phones with a common short numbering plan;
— the organization of the internal corporate network itself with uniform rules for managing calls on office and mobile phones;
— (marketing definition) an operator service that combines fixed and mobile communications with a convenient and economical single number plan.
In general, FMC is now considered the initial milestone of the Unified Communications segment, which will include not only voice communications, but also other types of services: video conferencing, collaboration, etc.
Benefits of Merging Fixed and Mobile Telecommunications
The advantages of the FMC service, arising from its technological and organizational specifics, include the following:
— Convenient communication between fixed and mobile devices in the corporate network based on short (with a prefix) internal numbers; including the creation of a forwarding algorithm. As a result — more effective communications, faster business decision-making.
— Inclusion of remote employees into the general corporate network, the ability to quickly deploy a “field” office without additional communication costs.
— Special preferential rates within the corporate network. As a rule, calls between employees from a landline to a mobile phone and in any other variations are not charged, even if the subscribers are in internal roaming.
— The manager has access to routing management, control and statistics of connections made through the corporate network from a mobile phone.