The highly anticipated hybrid phones let people make connections using a local wireless Internet access point and seamlessly switch over to a cellphone network whenever necessary. The net result is greater flexibility in mobile communications as well as potential cost savings gained by shifting call minutes that would otherwise count against a cellphone plan onto the Internet.
New phones and handsets that promise to accomplish this feat are due later this year from Motorola, Hewlett-Packard and NEC. Each is different, but all combine into a single device three hot technologies that are transforming the telecommunications industry: high-speed Wi-Fi wireless networks, voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and wireless broadband.
"If you go into any major carrier in North America or Europe today, they are at the very least in the strategic planning phases of integrating Wi-Fi and cellular into a package," said Novatel Wireless vice president Brad Weinert. "What's holding them back is the infrastructure to manage this on a large scale. But the operators are certainly driving in this direction quickly."
The marriage of short-range, high-speed Net access and cellular service brings together two technologies that have sprung up side by side, creating opportunities for both collaboration and competition. Cellular carriers have spent billions of dollars to upgrade their systems for high-speed data, or third-generation (3G), services. These offer wide coverage that exceeds Wi-Fi's short range, but bandwidth tops out at less than 500kbps (kilobits per second), and thus can't compare with wireless LAN (local area network) technology that blazes at speeds up to 54mbps (megabits per second).
Combining the ability to use both kinds of networks on a single device allows consumers to take advantage of the best each has to offer.
Hybrid handsets can use both data and voice applications, with most of the attention focused on data until recently. But that's changing, thanks to technology improvements for managing call transfers between Wi-Fi and cellphone networks and the increasing popularity of VoIP on corporate networks.
