Combining mobility with voice technology helps reduce telecommunications costs, while it can increase productivity by improving communication.

Voice over wireless LAN (VoWLAN) is a technology that lets businesses provide economical mobile access to voice and data services. Using dual-mode (cellular and WLAN) smart phones, employees can:

• Make and receive calls over an IP or cellular network
• Send and receive messages
• Gain high-speed access to data applications through wireless connections

Calls made on campus are routed through the company WLAN and then onto the wired IP network, while calls made from off campus are connected through cellular networks.

Deployments of voice over WLAN are increasing as a result of increased competition, globalization, and expansion through mergers, acquisitions, and outsourcing. Dual-mode-enabled mobility solutions also allow enterprises to decrease corporate cell phone usage and support productivity-enhancing applications.

Analysts predict that enterprise voice over WLAN deployments will rapidly increase. In a 2005 study, In-Stat predicts that 46% of the 296 million mobile phones expected by 2010 will have VoWLAN capabilities.

VoWLAN is an advanced mobility service of the Cisco Unified Wireless Network that enables businesses to provide economical mobile access to voice and data services within a specific enterprise location. The technology also supports centralized RF management and enterprise-class security, as well as quality of service (QoS) to ensure that calls are given priority access to wireless networks.

Companies can use dual-mode phones to help employees connect more rapidly to co-workers, potential customers, business partners, or other important contacts. The reduction in connection time helps people distribute information, build consensus, and reach decisions faster.

Advantages of Dual-Mode Phones

Cell phones represent a considerable but difficult-to-control ongoing expense for businesses, and they have limitations that can drain productivity. Dual-mode phones overcome many of the limitations of cell phones and provide benefits including the following:

• A call dialed from a dual-mode phone on a corporate campus is sent over the company WLAN and can be routed through optimized handling methods used for fixed-line traffic.
• With a dual-mode phone and Cisco Unified Communications, employees have a single telephone number and can check one inbox. Likewise, customers don't need multiple numbers for one person.
• On campus, dual-mode phones function as a mobile extension of the Unified Communications System and can support emerging applications, such as presence and click-to-dial applications.

Sample Savings

To illustrate cost and productivity benefits of dual-mode phones, we modeled return on investment (ROI) for a large division of a multinational Fortune 500 company. We compared the costs of supporting the division's 400 mobile users with traditional cell phones versus a deployment of dual-mode phones. The cost of both solutions included all expenditures for the WLAN, the devices, and cellular usage charges.

We found that supporting on-campus voice calls from mobile devices across the WLAN would enable the division to reduce telecommunications costs by 10% to 30% annually. Even including upgrade costs, the reduction in telecom costs amounted to $266,000 over six years.

In addition to reducing expenses, if the company also deployed an application such as Cisco Mobile Connect, it could increase productivity by reducing time associated with voicemail (employees have one voice mailbox to check instead of two); dialing and conferencing; and e-mail and messaging. An average savings of 20 minutes per day per user is possible with typical use.

Dual-mode phones can also save costs in several other ways, including:

• Reduced cell phone coverage charges
• Lower rate plans
• Reduced cellular data charges (on campus data is accessed via WLAN; off-campus via wireless hotspots)
• Fewer calls subject to termination fees (in offices outside the United States)

Required Investment

Many enterprise-level companies already own the basic infrastructure required for voice over WLAN, including wireless and IP networks. If a WLAN infrastructure does not support voice or does not provide total campus coverage, new or additional infrastructure, site audits, and software upgrades are needed. For optimal ROI, dual-mode phones require integration with the WLAN and with the IP private branch exchange (PBX).

Other requirements are dual-mode handsets with smart-phone capability and mobility applications such as mobile e-mail. Many companies also add enhanced services including click-to-call, unified messaging, presence, and conferencing applications.