FMC: another critical emergency communications tool on horizon

Fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) is yet another commercial technology advance on the horizon that can double as a critical tool for emergency communications.

As the name implies, FMC describesunified fixed and mobile communications. Information Week reports the technology has a lot of promise — especially the potential to be able to reach employees and others through a single phone number no matter whether they’re at their desks or on the road — but is still in the early stages of development, so it’s uncertain who the winners and losers will be and how the field will actually develop.

You can imagine how critical FMC could be for communications during emergencies, when it’s likely that people won’t be at their desks.

The article points out that while other major vendors are building their FMC strength through acquisitions and mergers, Avaya already provides enterprise PBXes, has its own FMC system, “… has provided mobile extensions for many years and so has a level of maturity rivals can only envy; and presents a defined road map. To top it off, Avaya hasn’t precluded itself from partnerships with other third-party FMC players, so Avaya customers who are not satisfied with others can easily switch.”

According to the article, features in such a system could (there’s no agreed-upon standard now) “.. include instant messaging, presence, and visual voice mail–which is not the same as simply sending voice messages to e-mail. Visual voice mail doesn’t require integration of e-mail and groupware, and it provides a separate view of the voice message that could include calling number and name, date and time, and length. Push-to-talk and voice-dialing are other potential features.” Again, think how critical this versatility and mobility could be in emergencies.

While the two may ultimately converge, for now, FMC is distinguished from “unified communications” which:

“… unites text, voice, and images. For example, the ability to have your e-mail read back to you or to dictate a response over the phone and send a fax from your mail client. Unified communications also entails corporate IM and presence support that ties into the PBX and groupware calendar.”

The article points out that declining prices and size for smartphones (BTW, I’m considering the new Palm Centro — please drop me a line if you’ve got an opinion on it) allows them to handle services such as mobile e-mail, while built-in WiFi can cut cellular bills, and features such as short-number dialing using the corporate directory can be time-savers but that a ton of IT management issues, including the familiar one of security, but also ones such as meeting governmental reporting requirements, still are obstacles.

Bottom line: there are still many issues to be ironed out, from technology to economics to management, but IMHO there’s both a management and technological inevitability to FMC, and that can only facilitate emergency communications.

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