April 10th, 2006
BridgePort pushes the ease-of-handoff, ease-of-reachability ball forward
BridgePort Networks made two very interesting announcements at CTIA.
First, they are collaborating with handset maker Kyocera and Wi-Fi hotspot access provider Boingo to enable a CDMA-Wi-Fi handset with integrated Boingo Wi-Fi access.
Such solutions are all about a one-device ease of handoff, and in the case of the Boingo integration, eliminating the need for the user to seek, and then get on to, a Wi-Fi network.
BridgePort also showed a MobileSTICK solution, that enables users to use their mobile phone numbers to place or receive calls from their PC or laptop. The MobileSTICK application is contained in a USB key, houses an embedded SIM card, and can be branded by the service provider.
The key to me here is mobile, single-identity reachablility,without worrying about separate landline or VoIP numbers.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
