Although there were a number of VoIP-related announcements at this year’s Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) in Barcelona, Spain, widespread VoIP services are far from reality on mobile networks.

 

Although WiMAX, LTE (News - Alert) (long-term evolution), and other mobile broadband technologies are considered the technologies that will be used to provide mobile broadband, they are not yet deployed, making discussion of mobile VoIP, or any other mobile IP communication service, largely theoretical. Further, the mobile industry does not yet have firm business cases for how operators would gain revenue from mobile broadband if they provide only Internet access and not voice services.

 

The issue seems to be not when they will offer VoIP, but if.

 

Long-term evolution (LTE) stepped into the spotlight at Mobile World Congress, offering a broadband alternative to Mobile WiMAX, which is just about to see its first product certifications. Both technologies provide the kind of broadband, IP network — which those in mobile tend to call 4G. LTE — that is possibly more accommodating of established mobile providers’ networks and legacy circuit-switched features than Mobile WiMAX (News - Alert).

 

“WiMAX has an advantage in time to market,” says Phil Solis, principal analyst, mobile broadband, ABI Research. “But LTE will (be adopted by) more major providers. ... They are similar technologies, but they will be used by different sets of companies. LTE eventually will have better economies of scale, because it will be used more around the world.”

 

But, Mobile WiMAX also may have new strength with the mobile community: “Rather than thinking, as they did earlier, that it would just fizzle away, they now see it as credible,” says Joe McGarvey, principal analyst, Current Analysis. “Clearly, year by year, it is gaining more momentum as a credible technology.”

 

There is little doubt that VoIP will be the voice system of choice in 4G networks. The only issue is whether or not mobile operators will offer their own, or sit back and let pure VoIP providers duke it out for customers over their networks.

 

“They are still trying to figure out whether they will be dumb pipes working with partners or have their own VoIP,” says McGarvey. “I think there will be a mix.”

 

Many would like to offer to VoIP, differentiating the service on features or quality, but that might mean degrading competitive services, which is not the way to customers’ hearts in the broadband world.

 

“Talking to some of them, the hope is to have their own VoIP services and differentiate them through some means,” McGarvey continues, “realizing it may be difficult to stop others from layering on their own applications. It gets into the whole net neutrality issue.”

 

Some third-party providers already have jumped into the mobile VoIP fray. At the Congress, De-Fi Mobile announced Straight Talk, a mobile service based on BroadSoft’s hosted platform. Using dual mode phones, the service bridges the traditional mobile and new WiFi networks using peering and interconnect agreements with more than 220 carriers, cable, and DSL providers worldwide.

 

The debates within operators about whether or not to offer VoIP are a microcosm of the larger business questions that loom around mobile broadband.

 

“The issue is more that these guys are still trying to figure out business models,” says McGarvey. “What happens when you have pervasive mobile broadband? They spent years building their business models, and they are loathe to change on a dime.”

 

Nortel Networks introduced a new mobile switching center server and media gateway for 2G and 3G networks that can link them to 4G access networks. This gives operators a way to extend the life of existing technology. The company demonstrated a 4G IP phone updating a traditional 2G call-forwarding feature. Bringing 4G access back to 2G/3G networks for features allows operators to preserve a familiar look and feel of phone features, explained Charles Bradshaw, senior manager, wireless core products, Nortel (News - Alert) Networks.

 

Will voice be the only service consumers are likely to want over a mobile broadband network, and is there value in preserving an older network just for voice?

 

When operators begin to deploy 4G networks, “they are not going to do this just for voice,” says Bradshaw. “There will be other multimedia applications that will push you into this kind of thing, whether it’s videoconferencing or multimedia downloads or video steaming.”

 

Some consumers may want a model of service different from traditional voice.

 

“A lot of people say you have to offer voice on top of [broadband], but I’m sure that many consumers want to buy access and buy other things separately, if even they do want voice,” explains Solis. “And they may want mobile data access only and not use it for voice at all.”

 

De-Fi says voice is only its first service offering. Video, gaming, Web access, IM, and more, are also on the drawing board.

 

A critical element for operators is timing. When do they start to migrate away from their 2G/3G networks to mobile broadband that can support VoIP, and will the customers force their hands by starting to make the move themselves? Mobile operators may have to figure out very quickly which business models work — voice or data or both, services or access.

 

And there are issues with the readiness of the infrastructure even when 4G base stations and handhelds are widely available. Multiple data applications can crowd a network to the point that voice quality can be affected.

 

“Coverage and quality go hand in hand,” says Solis. Considering that the connectivity to base stations is limited often to two T1s, he says, high-bandwidth data could affect voice quality, and operators “are really afraid of that.”

 

If, after evaluating all the uncertainties and negatives, mobile operators do decide to offer their own VoIP, there is an upside. Offering VoIP would enable them to compete directly for customers who now use fixed VoIP. Broadband, fixed or wireless, is just broadband for VoIP, and, with reasonable accommodations for quality, mobile could be on a par with fixed connectivity, at least for voice performance.

 

The hope that consumers would give up their fixed lines for mobile hasn’t really materialized in developed countries with good-quality fixed telephony. With a Mobile WiMAX kind of broadband, the lines between fixed and mobile blur, and the VoIP from a mobile operator will likely work just as well as that over a fixed line.