Business can reduce voice spend by a third with FMC and VoIP

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A clever combination of fixed/mobile convergence (FMC) and voice over IP (VoIP) technologies will be the key for businesses to unlock savings of more than 30 per cent from their communications spend, according to IT, media and telecoms specialist Analysys.

This shift, which will see companies bypassing expensive mobile services, will put additional pressure on mobile operators to maintain revenues, claims the analyst.

Corporate communications managers will garner the most benefit by merging traditional mobile packages with VoIP on Wi-Fi and using dual-mode phones and wireless gateways to slash roaming costs and fixed-to-mobile fees, according to Analysys' report entitled Fixed-Mobile Convergence in the Enterprise Voice Market.

"Companies are spending over 80 per cent of their call bill on mobile services, and that is causing them to turn to new technology looking for savings," said the report's author, Margaret Hopkins.

"Wireless gateways, VoIP and Wi-Fi offer them ways of cutting this bill that are independent of the network operators. Operators need to come up with innovative services to minimise the revenue leakage."

The report also forecasts future revenue for fixed, mobile and converged enterprise voice services in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, the UK and Western Europe.

It goes on to advise mobile operators to offer corporate home-zone services using femotocell devices - which allow 3G operators to extend their networks by using broadband as the backhaul - to reduce the demand for dual-mode celluar/Wi-Fi phones that are likely to steal revenue and traffic away from them.

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