CES Trend #10: Will wireless require multiple connectivity to remain viable?

BetaNews begins its countdown to next week's Consumer Electronics Show: From dual-mode handsets to a new technology dubbed Femtocell, hardware vendors and service providers are doing their best to meet a strong desire among consumers for seamless device connectivity across the growing tangle of networks.

Consumers crave easy connectivity over multiple wireless networks, and hardware makers preparing to exhibit at CES 2008 next week are trying their best to give that to them. But according to some industry analysts, technical issues still remain.

Mobile phones supporting dual-mode access to cellular and WiFi networks have been around for some time now, pointed out Susan Eustis, principal analyst at Evergreen Research, in an interview with BetaNews.

But now, as the availability of different types of wireless networks continues to evolve, consumers are going to want to connect to more networks -- adding access to WiMAX and other metropolitan area networks (MANs), for instance -- all from a single device, according to Eustis.

Ian Lao, an analyst at In-Stat, has drawn similar conclusions from In-Stat's own research.

"Consumers want anywhere/anytime connectivity," Lao told BetaNews. But he also emphasized that, due to issues around both hardware architectures and network infrastructures, vendors are finding it difficult to provide simple 24/7 access from a single device to more than one or two different local, wide area, or metropolitan area wireless networks.

"The (device) hardware typically has one, or at the most two, minislots. Vendors must decide between radio combinations to implement in their products since they cannot offer all of the possibilities," according to Lao.

"As an example, one product SKU may have a WiFi and EV-DO combo while another may have a WiFi and WiMAX combo. Vendors must constantly juggle between the different radios -- WiFi, WiMAX, Bluetooth, EV-DO, LTE, GSM, CDMA, HSDPA, GPRS, EDGE, UWB (Wireless USB), etc. -- for a given target market."

Lao indicated that the situation could be even tougher on the wireless wide-area infrastructure side. "A CDMA phone that works in the USA does not function on a European network," the In-Stat analyst said.

"Also, each carrier/provider wants fees for usage of its network, and has a business model which locks in the customer to its network under normal circumstances."

Indeed, in order to get access to European GSM networks for trips overseas, customers of major US wireless carriers often find that they must either upgrade their phones and service plans or purchase or rent a special phone from a European cell phone specialist such as Call in Europe.

On the device and infrastructure sides, however, vendors and service providers are coming up with some workarounds.

With one approach, some hardware vendors are providing integrated access to multiple networks by turning to larger form factors, which can circumvent the real estate limitations of smaller devices such as conventional cell phones.

For instance, Plantronics' Calisto, a product that will be exhibited at CES, brings together a DECT 6.0 phone for traditional landline calls with a wireless Bluetooth headset for cellular and VOIP calling.

Vendors and providers have also been starting to add support for unlicensed mobile access (UMA), a technology that carries the potential to reduce infrastructure costs by allowing for handoffs between "fixed" WiFi networks and mobile cellular networks.

UMA, however, requires a dual-mode handset. Meanwhile, Sprint has decided to start implementing an alternative technology called Femtocell, which doesn't impose the same requirement.

Analysts at Parks Associates view Sprint's support for Femtocell as a major boost in the arm. "Femtocell helps mobile carriers to extend their reach in consumer homes (and) offer fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) services," according to a recent Parks report.

"More importantly, it can serve as a retention tool," Parks continued, "and will potentially become a vital link in mobile carriers' mobile broadband fixed-mobile substitution strategies."