FMC: Trim your telecoms by 30 per cent

Dual mode handsets - where a single phone is used both for cellular and VoIP calls - and fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) could spell cost savings of up to 30 per cent on enterprise voice bills, analysts believe.

Telecoms watcher Analysys predicts the cheaper bills will be heralded by the advent of converged services as businesses begin to route more of their voice traffic over wi-fi rather than cellular connections, helping them avoid fixed-to-mobile calls costs and roaming charges.

However this is bad news for the operators, who will see voice revenues leaking away unless they can use tech to claw minutes back. Analysys suggests in-building femtocells - essentially mini mobile base-stations - could be the answer.

By using femtocells to offer 'home zone' pricing, where mobile minutes cost less if calls are placed within a certain area such as a company's premises, mobile operators may be able to persuade corporate users to keep their voice on cellular rather than wi-fi networks.

Nevertheless, Analysys is predicting dual-mode phones will make up 14 per cent of all handsets sold to enterprises by 2012 and four per cent of commercial users in Europe will be using FMC services by that time.

The popularity of FMC services in the coming years has been something of a subject of debate among industry pundits. One recent survey found one in five corporates will have deployed converged telecoms services in two years' time. Another predicts single digit adoption for some years to come.