Motorola's CN620 WiFi cellphone

We keep waiting for Vonage to get off their asses and introduce their WiFi phone, but Motorola just got that oh so coveted FCC approval for something even better, a cellphone that can roam on both cellular and WiFi networks (the MPx's WiFi isn't designed to roam). Besides having built-in 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11a, the CN620 has quad-band GSM so you'll be able to use it all over the world, a large color LCD screen and an eight-way navigation keypad, and push-to-talk.

[Mark-US @ Dec 19th 2005 12:03AM]

The Motorola CN620 smartphone has been hardware defined and is undergoing final software verification, but it is a very controversial product to market without scaring Motorola's biggest and baddest customers, the Tier-1 mobile operators. However, it could make cableTV companies very happy as they get into the voice-over-IP and wireless resale markets.

The CN620 will be a quad-band gsm with unconstrained WiFi connectivity, so it can be used as a cordless phone in WLAN-enabled homes. This then enables cable-TV companies to upgrade existing (Motorola) cable modems to WiFi and then offer VOIP/voice services, with all the profitable extra's (like collaboration tools) that can be bundled along with SIP (soft-phone) functionality. This could allow cableTV companies to accelerate the epidemic of wireline phone replacement that is gradually killing companies like AT&T, (ATT-wireless was sold to Cingular, so ATTW is also expected to turn around and eat into its ex-sister's lunch).

The WiFi-cellphone can also be used as a lower cost cell-phone in public WiFi hotspots like any MacDonalds, Starbucks or airports. The CN620 will roam between WiFi and GSM networks, if GSM networks cooperate, but it will almost certainly default to the cheaper-faster WiFi networks where available.

This new age of WiFi-cellphones could drive another wedge between mobile service providers and their now-uncontrollable subscribers. The mobile services value chain has fragmented, leaving a more horizonally integrated industry, with 3rd party service-discovery portals, content aggregators and virtual network operators (MVNO's) who can use WiFi to offer lower cost, lower-mobility higher-bandwidth services such as Net-TV and vid-conferencing, without getting one of those old-fashioned radio-spectrum licenses that governments became so fond of back before spread-spectrum modulation...anyway, it all seems to be happening in 3Q04...maybe. You can see the secret product specs here:

https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/cf/eas/reports/ViewExhibitReport.cfm?mode=Exhibits&RequestTimeout=500&calledFromFrame=N&application_id=504905&fcc_id='AZ489FT5829'