“Come together. Right now.” -The Beatles

As much as I enjoy and appreciate the Beatles, if they were talking to my fixed and mobile voice services, they really should have been more specific. Come together? Sure... but how?

The dream is simple. One phone. One bill. The ability to move seamlessly between a home network and a wireless network without dealing with dropped calls, massive changes in QoS, billing headaches, or any other giant hassles. This ideal, and any other incarnation taken on in the quest for Fixed-Mobile Convergence, is far from simple or dreamlike for the carriers, as many have found out.

Korea Telecom found that out. Deutsche Telekom found that out. One Phone and T-One are history. Many others, especially cable operators who have barely gotten over the stress of VoIP implementation, are not going near the can of worms that FMC proposes.

However, is it reticence based on uncertainty that the system can work, or is it a case of a feature without sufficient demand to justify the expenses and headaches that will come of attempting to incorporate FMC? A spokesperson from Time Warner Cable told us that, while she has no intention of speculating on future plans, there are no plans at present to create a BT Fusion-type FMC offering. She added that, based on the partnership between Time Warner and Sprint, mobile offerings are strong and relatively available, and unified messaging is already an option. Representatives from Verizon seem to, likewise, express little concern for the offerings that may eventually arrive. With single bill and single inbox options available, many companies seem to regard FMC as a luxury at best and a gimmick at worst.