Second Day: Polycom/SpectraLink Fuels Voice Over Wi-Fi

With voice over Wi-Fi emerging as a potential killer app for enterprise wireless LANs, vendor consolidation such as this week's Polycom/SpectraLink deal is no surprise.

On Wednesday, Polycom--known for its conferencing and unified communications products--acquired wireless vendor SpectraLink for $220 million. Both vendors cited the huge growth prospects for VoWLAN (voice over wireless LAN) capabilities in the enterprise as the driving factor in the deal.

Polycom says it wants to quickly bring enterprise SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) interoperablity to its wireless handsets. It also seeks to take advantage of the two companies' combined sales channels and customer bases to drive new VoWLAN sales, said Sunil Bhalla, senior VP and general manager of Polycom's Voice division.

Together, the combined companies are positioning themselves as an independent (read "non-Cisco") one-stop shop for both fixed and mobile IP-based solutions that encompass voice, video and data collaboration, the company says.Enterprises want a complete IP telephony solution, and while it's true that SpectraLink has strong OEM relationships with PBX vendors, it now adds a mobile component to all the wired opportunities Polycom is involved in.

Don't forget to Go Deep on this story: NWC this week published an in-depth analysis of the VoWLAN market and a review of VoWLAN products (see box below).