Picocell tech could aid fixed-mobile convergence

Picocells could revolutionize wireless because they could make the transmission of wireless data far less costly, making it possible to support the only widely accepted wireless data service -- Internet -- at a profit. Look at all the wireless backhaul that you can eliminate by supporting users' data connections with picocells while they're at home or in the office. Picocells could be the most significant element in savings of wireless data costs yet devised.

It would be even better if you can link some FMC features with it. This includes the old "wireless/wireline voice calling convergence" that's been talked about since FMC was first raised as an option, but more significantly it includes things such as controlling your personal video recorder with your mobile phone instead of a remote, using your phone for channel guides, increasing the popularity of Short Message Service and handset e-mail services ... you get the picture. SMS is already the fastest-growing piece of non-voice services in the mobile space, and getting users socialized to video on small handset screens while in the home might even help promote mobile video down the line.

Maybe FMC still won't happen, but there have been a lot of signs that it will. The big tag on the spectrum auction is one. Verizon's strategy for opening handsets, which reduces the value of calling plans in retaining customers and creating loyalty, is another. FMC might even regionalize mobile competition, creating the biggest benefits for the two major wireless providers -- AT&T and Verizon -- that are also big broadband incumbents. It could also be another way to take a slice out of the cable competitors, which don't have mobile properties. But in the final analysis, the industry can't give up on mobile yet because there's too much invested in it. That makes FMC look like a very strong option indeed.