FMC on track for growth

Infonetics report highlights the rapid growth of fixed mobile convergence

The fixed mobile convergence (FMC) market is set to grow seven-fold by 2011, research has claimed.

Figures from analyst house Infonetics reported in FMC Equipment, Phones and Subscribers that sales of dual mode cellular/WiFi phones, including dual service and unlimited mobile access (UMA) FMC phones, hit $7.6bn in the second quarter of 2008, and are expected to see growth of 16 per cent for the year.

Similarly the FMC network element market, which launched last year and includes UMA network controllers, voice call continuity application servers and multi-access convergence gateways, grew five-fold from 2006 to 2007.

Stephane Teral, principal analyst at Infonetics Research, said: “UMA continues to dominate the worldwide seamless FMC market, and remains a two-horse race, with unabated deployments at T-Mobile USA and Orange in Europe, which, as anticipated, is launching 3G UMA.

“We expect all the phone and equipment segments in the niche FMC market to grow rapidly.”