Persona Software plans to ship in mid-November the second edition of its “fixed-mobile convergence” (FMC) suite, which lets dual-mode phone users roam between cellular and WiFi networks. Personal OnePhone 2.0 adds support for Linux, Symbian, and Windows Mobile 5.0 phones, along with security and regulatory compliance features.

OnePhone comprises mobile phone software, along with carrier-side software that runs on Persona's “Mobility Applications Platform” SIP (session-initiation protocol) application server. The combination enables mobile users to roam between WiFi and cellular networks with “one phone, one identity, and one phone number,” Persona says.

Persona calls OnePhone “the only network-based FMC solution that uses Session Initiation Protocol (SIP),” which it says will allow services built today with OnePhone to continue their useful life into the coming era of 3G services based on IMS (IP Multimedia Services).

SIP is an open standard communications protocol that runs at the network application layer, alongside protocols such as HTTP, FTP, and so on. It can be used to set up, tear down, and modify user sessions for services such as calls, multimedia streams, and instant messaging, to name a few. SIP is an open industry standard maintained by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force).

Persona says its use of SIP will allow OnePhone to “integrate seamlessly” with IMS (IP multimedia subsystems), as carriers roll those out as part of full-fledged 3G infrastructure build-outs. IMS is an umbrella framework for modular systems that provide IP (Internet protocol) services, and is expected to allow carriers to integrate their networks more closely with the Internet and other IP-based networks in the future. IMS is an industry specification championed by the 3GPP (3G Partners Project).

Key features of OnePhone 2.0, according to Persona, include:

• Business, consumer, and regulatory features such as emergency service support, call transfer, ring-back when free, and click-to-dial
• Expanded support for IPSec, over both WiFi and GPRS networks
• Forward compatibility with IMS
• Fulfillment of key requirements of the Fixed-Mobile Convergence Alliance (FMCA), described as group of “30 leading carriers [that] serve more than 440 million customers worldwide”

Recent market research from ABI suggests dual-mode phones will quickly achieve marketplace acceptance, primarily because WiFi works better in-doors than cellular. Currently available dual-mode phones based Linux are limited to the NEC N900iL, although several others, including the Haier N60, offer WiFi capabilities through SDIO.

VP of Marketing Rob Fuggetta said, “The FMC market is ready to explode. For service providers to attack the FMC opportunity now, they need a carrier-grade FMC solution that meets their requirements for reliability and scalability; offers differentiated mobility features; and is based on the open SIP standard that is the heart of next-generation IMS/3G networks.”

Availability

OnePhone 2.0 will ship to networking companies for solution integration on November 15, Persona says. The currently shipping 1.0 version supports only Windows 2003, the company says.

 
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