Why Isn’t FMC Ubiquitous?
Available everywhere and at an affordable price to both consumer and business users — and as we change roles during the day — many potential-FMC users act in both consumer and business user roles. Let’s start with the consumer space, which should be simple, but certainly is not. Mobile operators continue to capture more consumers — by displacing wireline phones. And, now, with some FMC variants, wireless operators can extend cellular service into the home, perhaps further displacing the wireline phone. However, this often requires a wireline broadband connection to the home to “backhaul” the femto/nano-cell traffic to the cellular network. So the mobile operator benefits in two ways — keeping the minutes on the mobile network and getting the backhaul traffic off the mobile network, thereby lowering the mobile operator’s need to build further expensive wireless infrastructure. But the consumer still has to maintain a broadband connection — either from a telephone or cable company. Few t
