Cellular phones have become an indispensable tool in jobs where mobility is paramount and the office can move from a customer site to the nearest Starbucks in a single day—unfortunately corporate users on cellular networks sacrifice many of the features of traditional PBX-based phone systems. The arrival of Wi-Fi-based VoIP phones provides yet another medium for mobile communication via third-party networks with the same drawbacks of being untethered from corporate-supported PBXes. So-called FMC (fixed-mobile convergence) products promise to extend the internal phone network to mobile users on shared, public infrastructure, and Ericsson’s recently announced Mobility Gateway delivers on this pledge.
| Ericsson Mobility Gateway PBX Add-On
Provides traditional PBX features such as conference calling, call parking, call transfers and more to mobile or smartphones
www.ericsson.com |
The Mobility Gateway is an add-on module to Ericsson’s MX-ONE IP-PBX telephony platform, although it can also be integrated with any PBX supporting the QSIG inter-PBX signaling protocol. The gateway enables enterprises to assign internal PBX numbers to mobile phone users, allowing them to appear as normal corporate extensions. Since mobile phones are configured as ordinary extensions and all calls are routed from the cellular network through the PBX, they inherit all PBX features, the voicemail system, and any classes of service used by internal, fixed-line extensions. This network linkage opens up the plethora of calling options corporate users have long relied upon to cellular users including: abbreviated (internal number) dialing, call-back, call-pickup, call-parking, conference calling, secretarial monitoring, and operator/attendant services, among others. Because the mobile number is just another internal extension, it can easily be moved to any other phone—fixed or mobile—on the network. Because cellular coverage is often spotty in large buildings and urban canyons, dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular phones also gain improved call quality and reliability with the ability to use an internal Wi-Fi network when on campus and the cellular network elsewhere.
Fixed-mobile convergence also promises to reduce costs because it can eliminate the need for many employees to carry multiple telephony devices. Network charges will typically decrease, particularly for international calls, because the gateway can route calls via PBX instead of the more expensive cellular network. Ericsson estimates savings of up to 30% while other studies claim upwards of 50% to 60% when using IP telephony.
There are a large number of competing companies in the FMC market, primarily focused on VoIP-GSM subspecies (Ericsson’s product is not limited to IP telephony; it also works with traditional circuit-switched PBXes). 2N Telekomunikace (www.2n.cz), Hypermedia Systems (www.hyperms.com), Teleopen.net (teleopen.net), QuesCom 400 (www.quescom.com), Vierling Ecotel (www.vierling.de), Topex Qutex (www.topex.ro), and MultiAccess (www.multitech.com) all offer gateway products. 
by Kurt Marko
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