Enterprise adoption of WLANs has been held in check for years, but recently we have observed the makings of a wireless "perfect storm" coming together that would clear the way for their adoption: 

1) VoIP lines are outpacing traditional phone lines in enterprises, 

2) WiFi is being built into all clients - (thanks to players like Intel with Centrino), 

3) Wireless VoIP handsets prices are coming down , and 

4) Economic rebound has demonstrated the importance of productivity-improving technologies. 

As a natural extension to wired VoIP, wireless VoIP is gaining the greatest mindshare of all the possible applications that can be unwired. Why is that? Well, past justification for wireless LANs only looked at soft improvement indirectly derived from the implementation of a wireless LAN: the ability to maintain connectivity while in a meeting, for example. Being able to reference documents on the Web or via e-mail while sitting in a meeting can be deemed productivity improving. There are may other examples, but, in general, they are all difficult to tie to specific savings for corporations. 

VoIP is different. VoIP on the wired network brings the obvious improvement on converging two networks into a single network and creates real, measurable return on investment (ROI). The same is true if VoIP is extended to the WLAN. Wireless VoIP presents real, demonstrable ROI, which in a post-bubble economy is the only way to speed adoption. For example: Cellular phone calls made within the same campus comprise between 30% and 50% of the total cellular bill. We’ve all done it. “Where is Bob? He’s late for the meeting. Let me call his cell and get him down here.” Implementing wireless VoIP allows people to carry their desk phones with them eliminating the cellular phone call. Moves, adds, and change administration is also reduced. These examples all demonstrate very real, “hard” ROI that just greases the skids for the economic buyer in a corporation. 

This converged wireless adoption, of course, is dependent on the adoption of VoIP within enterprises. The natural next question is: how is that going? According to Instat/MDR, enterprise IP telephone line deployment increased 60% in 2002 and is expected to continue this meteoric rise through 2004. It’s hard to argue against a trend like that.

As with most widely adopted technology, standardization of communication protocols for wireless networks is driving down the cost of clients dramatically. Thanks to integration efforts of Intel and other processor companies, groups like the Wi-Fi Alliance and IEEE, and cooperation of vendors to implement wireless standards, wireless data clients enter a corporation for free (or at least at no apparent cost) by being included with each device. While Wi-Fi VoIP handsets today are locked in to a $500 - $600 range, the economic force of standardization can’t be denied forever. In fact, there are a bevy of Wi-Fi VoIP handsets being developed on both sides of the Pacific that are aiming to drive that cost down using standard chips. Battery saving announcements from chip vendors and WLAN equipment vendors will make the Wi-Fi VoIP handset in the $200 to $300 range a very real, usable technology. With wired and wireless VoIP phones at a comparable price, corporations will soon choose phones the way you do at home – corded or cordless? What choice will they make? Well, how many corded phones do you have at home?

Next page >>

page 1 of 2