While most of the focus on mobile UC is concentrated on premises based solutions like those that combine Wi-Fi and cellular, the mobile operators, at least the smaller ones, are starting to make some noise. Sprint has been offering an enterprise FMC service for Avaya and Cisco IP PBX customers called Mobile Integration which features an innovative way to cut the cost of cellular calls between a company’s mobile users and their PBX. Sprint has now partnered with FMC equipment supplier Tango Networks to expand the potential market for that service to all legacy and IP PBXs. They have also added some significant new functionality that can have amajor impact going forward.
Sprint’s Mobile Integration
Mobile Integration is Sprint’s network-based FMC service, though few buyers seem to have heard about it. I have had Sprint on a number of panels at VoiceCon and InterOp talking about it, though I can’t ever remember anyone (except me) ever writing about it. That’s not overly surprising given the level of complexity involved. The service configuration requires an MPLS network connection from the customer’s PBX to the Sprint network; an Avaya or Cisco supplied device is required to support the MPLS network connection. Sprint then creates a type of mobile virtual private network (VPN). They store the mobile numbers of all of the Mobile Integration subscribers along with the number range for the PBX.
When a call is placed to aMobile Integration subscriber’s PBX station, the PBX will ring the user’s deskphone and simultaneously forward a call request over the MPLS connection to Sprint who will ring their mobile; the user can answer the call on either device. If the call is answered on the mobile, the PBX forwards the call over the MPLS network to Sprint who converts it to a traditional circuit switched cellular call. Most importantly, Sprint treats that call as a free on-network mobile call.
If one Mobile Integration subscriber calls another, Sprint rings the mobile device and simultaneously sends a call request over the MPLS network to the PBX to ring their desk set. If the user answers on the mobile, an alert message is sent to the PBX so the call can be captured in the call detail recording. If the user answers on the desk set, Sprint connects the call to the PBX over the MPLS connection. In either case, the call is treated as a free on-net mobile call.
Sprint charges $4.95 peruser per month for the Mobile Integration, and there is a charge for the MPLS network connection. However, all calls between the PBX and those Mobile Integration subscribers are free. This can be particularly attractive with the mobile UC clients offered by virtually all of the PBX suppliers (e.g. Avaya, oneX, Cisco Unified Mobile Communicator, Siemens OpenScape Mobile, etc.) which route all the user’s incoming and outgoing business calls through the PBX.
The Tango Factor
Tango’s product is a PBX agnostic FMC solution that by itself provides many of the same features as Mobile Integration. Those would include single number access, single voicemail,and number protection (i.e. keeping the mobile number unknown). The Tango configuration calls for the installation of a central office device called the Abrazo C in the mobile operator’s network and a companion device called the Abrazo E at the customer’s location. The two Abrazo’s exchange signaling messages to provide simultaneous ringing and to route calls.
According to Al Leo, VP of Business Development at Tango, Sprint has now embraced the concept, implemented the Abrazo C in their network, and married the Tango capability to Mobile Integration. The major advantage of the new service, formally called Tango-Enabled Mobile Integration, is that it can now be offered to users on all IP and TDM-based PBX platforms, not just Avaya and Cisco. This is particularlyattractive to customers with mixed PBX environments. Customers will have to install an Abrazo E, but a single Abrazo E will support users in multiple locations and on a variety of PBXs. Mobile calls to/from the PBX will still be routed over an MPLS connection, and the financial advantage of treating them as on-net mobile calls will be maintained.
There is another very important capability that customers can get with the Tango-enabled version. Sprint can now provide presence status (i.e. on/off hook) and location of the mobile devices. Up until this now, the interface between the user and the mobile operator has been as functional and transparent as a brick wall, but now for the first time we are getting the ability to view presence information about mobile users. The location information is cell tower identification rather than GPS location, but that is way better than nothing.
Conclusion
The leading-edge ideas inenterprise mobile services are coming from the smaller operators rather than the behemoths (i.e. AT&T and Verizon). While the Wi-Fi/cellular solutions have grabbed the spotlight in FMC, Sprint and Tango are providing a cost saving mobility solution that raises the bar with regard to functionality. The biggest challenge may be to get the PBX, wide area networking, and mobility groups to work together to deploy it.
Tango expands the available market for Sprint’s Mobile Integration to all PBX systems, but from a mobile UCperspective, the ability to provide presence and location status for mobile devices is a real breakthrough. Sprint will still have to work through their ongoing business difficulties (they lost $2.4 billion and saw their subscriber base slip from 48.3 to 48.1 million in 2009) and convince customers that their WiMAX initiative is a viable 4G solution going forward. However, they have jumped out in front of the pack with regard to mobile UC.