NEC, FirstHand Partner for Mobile PBX

In just the most recent announcement indicating the convergence of mobile phones and the PBX, FirstHand Technologies and NEC Unified Solutions are joining forces to deliver what they call mobile unified communications.

Under this partnership, the FirstHand Enterprise Mobility Solution will be fully integrated with the NEC UNIVERGE portfolio. This solution will extend UNIVERGE enterprise functionality to smart phones and dual-mode devices, including BlackBerry RIMs, Nokia E-series devices and Windows Mobile devices over both cellular and Wi-Fi networks. That will enable NEC customers to perform corporate directory lookup, enterprise extension dialing, presence, instant messaging, outlook contact integration, ad-hoc mobile conferencing, visual voicemail and more from their mobile devices.

This intersection of mobile and PBX functionality is spreading as more cellular operators seek to get a bigger share of businesses’ communications spending.

For example, French mobile operator SFR announced recently that it will be using Thomson’s Cirpack switches with mobile IP Centrex capabilities to offer advanced business telephony features with fixed/mobile convergence to enterprise users. The gear will enable SFR, which has 17.8 million subscribers, to offer businesses a single phone number for both mobile and fixed lines, with simultaneous ringing and unified voice messaging on both phones. It also will allow SFR’s business customers that choose the service to have the same advanced features on their cell phones that are available on enterprise IP Centrex systems – such as call transfer, call conferencing, short-dialing, filtering and supervision by an assistant.

“The PBX market is a $10 billion market, and basically we’re just applying some of the value of that market to the mobile network,” said Scott Wharton, vice president of marketing at BroadSoft Inc., an application server provider which is not involved with the NEC/FirstHand deal, but was early to the mobile PBX space. Centennial de Puerto Rico, the incumbent fixed and mobile service provider in Puerto Rico, is BroadSoft’s one named customer for this gear. It’s using BroadSoft software for both a hosted PBX on its fixed network and a mobile PBX service to its cellular customers, Wharton said.

Another application server provider, Sylantro Systems Corp., began catering to cellular service providers about a year ago when it adapted its hosted PBX platform for their needs, said Ron Raffensperger, senior vice president of marketing at Sylantro.

“There is a large opportunity to increase revenues and cannibalize other carrier' revenue by offering services such as Virtual Wireless PBX, which allows full PBX dialing and feature use from a normal mobile handset. This capability would make a good optional service,” Raffensperger said. “There is also the opportunity to integrate hosted Internet applications, such as Salesforce.com, using the Web Services capabilities of a feature server.”

According to Rob Russell, director of product marketing for Tekelec’s switching group (which also offers mobile PBX and FMC capabilities), it is increasingly difficult for cellular providers to differentiate their services, so wireless operators are increasingly looking to expand their portfolios to drive new revenue and lock in existing business customers that might now have more service provider options due to new competition in a given market. He said service providers are looking first to deliver hosted VoIP, either in collaboration with other service providers or on their own; the next step is to be able to merge those services into a wireless offering through dual-mode (Wi-Fi/mobile) phones. That FMC trend is expected to accelerate this year, says Russell, helped in part by sound performance improvements to the Wi-Fi side of such dual-mode phones.

BroadSoft Inc. www.broadsoft.com  

Centennial de Puerto Rico www.centennialpr.com  

Sylantro Systems Corp. www.sylantro.com  

Tekelec www.tekelec.com  

Thomson www.thomson.net

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