With all the hype surrounding fixed-mobile convergence (FMC), we are likely to see more talk about QoS, or lack thereof, when it comes to VoIP over WiFi. Late last week, U.K. carrier British Telecom confirmed that it intends to target its BT Fusion converged service at larger businesses later this year and offer VoIP calling when WiFi-enabled handsets become available from Motorola. It appears QoS doesn't seem to be a big deal for BT. The Cloud, which owns the majority of U.K. WiFi hotspot infrastructure branded as BT Openzone, said that transmitting VoIP over WiFi hotspots isn't that big of a deal. "We just transmit VoIP traffic like we do any other data," the company said. The Cloud said it will address any QoS issues as it sees demand grow. I'm sure that won't sit well with large businesses who want guarantees that their calls will be delivered without terrible voice quality. Let's hope these early movers don't hurt the market for everyone else.
For more about BT's wireless VoIP plans:
- check out this article from telecoms.com (sub. req.)