Wi-Fi Phones Near 100; Few in United States

The Wi-Fi Alliance today said it has certified almost 100 voice-over-Wi-Fi capable handsets since it began testing them in 2004, with service provider support for combined cellular/VoIP phones now under way in seven countries.

It was fitting that the announcement came at the 3GSM World show in Barcelona, Spain: Most of the phones and services target overseas markets, not the United States, Network Computing tech editors noted.Voice over WLAN/Wi-Fi can change the cost game in the cellular market, so carriers are eyeing it cautiously. So-called Vo-Fi is of particular interest to enterprises, which could use voice services to help justify the build-out of their internal Wi-Fi networks with other critical, heavy-use applications.

The Wi-Fi Alliance says it has certified 82 dual-mode (offering cellular and wi-fi voice service) and 10 single-mode Wi-Fi phones, with more on the way. More than 325 million converged Wi-Fi/cellular phones and 15 million single-mode Wi-Fi phones will be shipped in 2011, according to ABI Research.

Wi-Fi Alliance certification for phones covers core Wi-Fi interoperability and standards-based security protocols and includes optional programs for multimedia support and power conservation, the group said. Tests for voice performance as well as for RF performance in converged handsets are planned for later this year.

A list of all Wi-Fi-Certified handsets and other products is available at http://www.wi-fi.org.