FMC set to grow

A study from Infonetics Research, "FMC Equipment, Phones, and Subscribers", says the global fixed-mobile convergence infrastructure equipment market, which includes UMA network controllers and multi-access convergence gateways, grew nearly fivefold from 2006 to 2007, says TMCnet.

The analyst firm expects this market to grow another tenfold between 2007 and 2011. This growth surge in the FMC infrastructure market is attributed primarily to large FMC deployments being rolled out by T-Mobile in the US and by Orange in Europe, according to the study.

St'ephane T'eral, principal analyst at Infonetics Research, noted the fixed-mobile convergence market, which was just emerging last year with strong UMA deployments that started in Europe, has now reached significance in North America with T-Mobile USA's FMC build out.

Don Rippert, CTO and MD of Accenture, spoke at Accenture's annual Global Convergence Forum this week where industry executives gathered to discuss the event's theme, "Achieving High Performance in a Multi-Polar World", reports CIO.

He shared his vision of where technology was headed in the year 2038. "Technology will be more 'affordable and imaginable'," said Rippert, going as far as to predict that devices of all sorts that reside in the body like the heart defibrilator.

Other uses for devices like those that drive cars and act like microsensors already exist in some form, he continued, noting that the audience had successfully arrived in Miami Beach most likely in an airplane that at some point was flying on autopilot.

Axon has bought Auckland-based enterprise content management company Office Automation Software for an undisclosed sum, says Computerworld.

Service provider Axon signalled last year it was on the acquisition trail. CEO Scott Green said at the time he was looking to deliver converged "telco-like services".

Green says when Axon delivered its internal vision on 11 November, initiatives were identified for action. These covered a "broad spectrum", he says, including virtualisation, software-as-a-service, convergence and other areas as well as a more general drive to increase the business value Axon provides to customers.