Time Europe’s piece The Mobile Snatchers (picked up by Andy Abramson over on VoIP Watch) is about the coming convergence of WiFi and mobile networks. Time writes:
Handset vendors are starting to build Internet technologies into their phones that permit users to bypass mobile networks. The same wi-fi chips that have worked their way into laptops and turned tens of thousands of coffee shops and hotel lounges into Internet surfing zones are starting to appear in handsets. Customers using this phone simply place a call as normal, provided they have access to a wi-fi zone.
As Richard Stastny points out, this is nothing new. It’s still a bit of a hack, though.
Friday I saw a demo of NewStep Networks Converged Call Management portfolio. It seamlessly hands off calls from the enterprise WiFi network to cellular, and back again, without missing a beat. Quite amazing, and a required piece of technology if Time’s scenario is to become a reality instead of just a hack.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
