PCTEL’s Roaming Client – Voice Enabled (VE) will be the software powering a new prototype handset from Kyocera Wireless, one of the first to try Voice Call Continuity (VCC), which usually covers seamless roaming from one cell network (or 3G network) to another, in the context of Wi-Fi to cellular roaming.
“The VCC solution is the latest set of standards that has come out of the 3G Partnership Project,” says Bruce Rowland of PCTEL’s Mobility Solutions Group. “This solution is proving to be more flexible and applies to a broader range of network architectures, such as the IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS).”
Rowland told Wi-Fi Planet that VCC is being trialed, independent of UMA solutions, by various cellular and wireline operators.
ABI Research is cited by PCTEL as saying that 11 million subscribers could be using VCC technology on dual-mode Wi-Fi/mobile phones by 2008.
The prototype phone — which the company calls a proof-of-concept that addresses the demand for dual-mode VCC — will support CDMA (as do most Kyocera phones), with VoIP service via the VE client.
“A fully seamless and user-transparent experience can be achieved in a Voice Call Continuity implementation,” says Rowland. “Such an experience has been achieved in the joint effort between PCTEL and Kyocera Wireless.” He believes VCC phones will be commercially available by the end of this year.