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Stuart Biggs


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Hype surrounding fixed-mobile convergence often centres on whether 3G or WiMAX will become the technology of choice for providing high-bandwidth wireless connectivity for users on the move.
But an equally significant battle for technology bragging rights is taking place closer to home.
Home networks are becoming a battleground for vendors eager to cater for operators' desire to offer voice, internet and pay television over their last-mile access pipes.
'Service providers need to manage the network environment inside the home to incrementally introduce services and charge for them. But they need a networking media that can support those applications and the bet is that media is Wi-fi,' said Ruckus Wireless chairman Dominic Orr.  
Ruckus Wireless launched a range of Wi-fi products in Hong Kong last week designed to let users stream video, audio, games and data applications simultaneously without disruption, using multicast software and traffic inspection to prevent dropped calls or interrupted streaming video when users run multiple applications.
At the Ruckus Wireless launch, PCCW's director of product development Allen Wong  said: 'The key issue for wireless deployment in home networks is quality of service. People need a real broadband experience in the home, not just a broadband pipe. This is about recreating wirelessly the home network that customers already had with their old copper wires, where they could plug their phone in from multiple locations in the house.'
PCCW's interest in Wi-fi stemmed from the growing proliferation of Wi-fi enabled devices such as PDAs, laptops and PlayStation Portables, Mr Wong said. But the future could see the company's Now Broadband TV service transmitted in the home over Wi-fi.
Ruckus' general manager for operations and Asia Bart Burstein  said quality of service extended far beyond customer satisfaction once operators used Wi-fi for converged fixed-mobile voice services. 'Signal quality and service quality become more critical when they directly affect a business model. This certainly becomes the case in the fixed-mobile world, where operators charge differently for calls made over Wi-fi to calls made over mobile networks. Users do not want to pay for a mobile call just because their Wi-fi signal doesn't reach into the bedroom,' Mr Burstein said. 
Ruckus Wireless said its Wi-fi products for fixed-mobile voice services were still in development and depended on handset availability and an improvement in battery life. Analysts predict that PCCW will begin offering converged fixed-mobile services over Wi-fi once handsets are available in greater volumes by the middle of next year.
But developments elsewhere suggest Wi-fi's proliferation as the technology of choice for triple play and fixed-mobile convergence is by no means assured. BT adopted Bluetooth for its fixed-mobile service, dubbed Fusion, partly due to its superior reliability for device-to-device connectivity.
Forrester's principal analyst for telecom and networks research, Lars Godell,  said: 'There are still many issues with Wi-fi and the cellular handover. Some companies claim to have solved it but there are still issues with quality of service, and Wi-fi is plagued with latency issues.' 
Gartner's principal analyst for emerging technologies and semiconductors, Paul O'Donovan, doubted whether either technology would be suitable for video in the short term. 
'Certainly, in the consumer electronics space, if you're talking DVD players or anything involving video, the take-up of wireless is going to be extremely slow because it has to be embedded in the device and it has to function flawlessly, which hasn't been the experience of wireless in the PC space,' he said.
Mr O'Donovan said rival technologies such as Broadband over Power Line could still become an option for operators over time. BPL semiconductor developer Intellon recently secured US$24.5.million in venture funding from, among others, Intel and Motorola.
Mr Godell said home networks remained a work in progress. 'TV distribution inside the home is a critical issue for telecoms and cable companies but, in terms of how it is broadcast, it is still very early days.' 




Wireless battle enters the home