Siemens is to work with wireless telephony firm, SpectreLink, to provide voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services over firms' wireless LANs (WLANs). The partners said the system will improve the efficiency of mobile staff, but some analysts argued that VoIP will only put further stress on limited WLAN backbones with maximum capacities of 11Mbit/s.
The firms have been collaborating in the US for some time, but Siemens will now resell the SpectreLink NetLink Wireless Telephone System (WTS) globally. "The NetLink WTS will give wireless access to the corporate telephone switch with all the functionality of the desktop," said Ben Guderian, director of marketing at SpectreLink.
The NetLink WTS operates over WLANs using the 802.11b standard to deliver voice calls and voice-enabled applications to mobile users, explained Guderian. It allows users to send and receive voice and data calls from IP handsets and mobile clients, such as PDAs or notebooks, as long as they remain in range of other WLAN users or WLAN access points. Guderian added that, unlike mobile phones, VoIP calls over corporate LANs attract no airtime charges.
However, analysts recommended that IT managers adopt a wait-and-see approach to wireless VoIP. Clive Longbottom of analyst firm, Quocirca, said, "It's workable in theory, but when 802.11b can only support 11Mbit/s of shared bandwidth you are adding extra stress with voice on a LAN that is already loaded with data traffic." He added that security would be another major issue.
