Suppliers will use 3GSM to showcase a range of converged
mobile devices. Avaya, Alcatel, Cisco, Motorola and Nokia are among
suppliers set to discuss how they have integrated 3G mobile
handsets with Wi-Fi, fixed lines and IP-based private branch
exchanges.
Jason Chapman, managing vice-president at analyst firm Gartner,
said the benefits to organisations of this technology would be
lower networking and call costs, the use of single phone numbers
for each employee, universal inboxes, and the ability to access the
same office applications and information from mobiles or
desktops.
"Enterprises have made big investments in internal phone
networks and want to get value from them," he said.
Apart from the operational costs of the network, there would be
no extra charge for making person-to-person mobile calls if calls
were routed through the company's PBX, Chapman added.
However, several issues may delay the widespread adoption of
integrated mobile systems, said Chapman, such as handset
availability, a lack of standards and contract complexity.
Along with high-speed wireless services and converged
mobile/fixed communications, push e-mail, popularised by Research
in Motion's Blackberry service, will also be among the big themes
of the conference.
Microsoft and newcomer Funambol will be demonstrating their
respective push e-mail services at 3GSM.
Voice and video e-mail messaging
Glenayre will demonstrate its active messaging systems at 3GSM
2006. The Versera Active Messaging platform lets companies deliver
interactive voice and video e-mail messages to the user's inboxes.
Subscribers can purchase, subscribe, download, provide feedback,
tell a friend, or request more information while reviewing the
multimedia content, said the company.