The idea of being able to use a dual mode handset and roam between 802.11 (WLAN) and 2.5G or 3G networks took a giant leap forward when Avaya (NYSE:AV), Proxim (Nasdaq: PROX) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) announced that their cooperation is beginning to bear fruit.  The three vendors jointly announced on Tuesday that their platform that will allow enterprise users to get ABC (Always Best Connected) wireless service (either via their corporate WLAN or the cellular network). 

The offering is called "Converged Mobility Solution" and it requires an IP PBX from Avaya, access points (APs) from Proxim  and a call manager gateway and the dual mode handsets from Motorola.  These phones (the Motorola  CN620 Dual-Network Mobile Office Device - MOD) support both VoIP connections when in range of a corporate WLAN (or presumably some WiFi hotspot in the future) and a GSM cellular connections whenever an 802.11 network is not detected.

The MOD can switch from the wireless to the 802.11 network when it is available, as well as hand-off calls from the WLAN to the GSM network when the end-user is no longer in range (depending on what the SNR, or signal-to-noise ratio is).  The handset runs on an embedded version of  Windows CE (4.2) and relies on a dual mode 802.11a/g chip from Texas Instruments.  The equipment will initially run only on 802.11a, however.  The gateway allows for push-to-talk whenever the users are in range of a WLAN. 

Of course, a big part of the equation is when Avaya will find and announce a wireless operator partnership, since sales cannot really take off without some participation from that carrier.  What does that mean for wireless SPs?  Will they be able to match a triple play offering from the wireline counterparts?  Perhaps... But this joint offering is a step in that direction.  A wireless SP could form a relationship with these vendors and then offer a bundle that would consist of X minutes worth of calls on their GSM network (or CDMA 2.5G/3G variant) coupled with Y minutes worth of calls on their WiFi networks.  Hence, a user could take his CN620 and use it for free within his enterprise (with Avaya and Proxim WLAN and IP PBX gear), while incurring one rate when on the wireless network and another type of charge when within range of a publicly available WiFi hotspot.

Update (Aug.3/04): Motorola claims to have solved the battery power issue with this product.  The battery consumption for 802.11 phones is much higher than for the traditional wireless handsets, because of the way the 802.11 protocol works (i.e. the access point, or AP, keeps on checking whether or not all the endpoits associated with it want to make voice transmissions; this periodic activity can draw a lot of battery power over a short period of time, making the duration of a fully charged 802.11 set a lot shorter than that of a typical wireless phone).  Motorola is using a work-around with Proxim that is premised upon a "deep sleep" strategy.  More details will follow in an upcoming post.