The number of mobile phones in the world has already exceeded 2 billion, and now skyrocketing rates of broadband network deployments are seeding the ground for growth of convergence services.  According to studies, the number of convergence devices worldwide may be as high as 200 million by 2010, with carriers spending as much as $2 billion on convergence systems by that date.

Convergence is a mechanism for mobile operators and MVNOs to expand the reach of their services and applications by making use of already existing broadband IP infrastructure to reach more customers in more places.  Multi-network devices allow users to access network services over multiple networks.  A gateway element in the carrier’s network allows them to deliver their services securely, with mobility within and between networks, and with quality of service assurance.

For users, the benefits of convergence include:

• Improved coverage in areas in which the wide-area network is weak, such as in-buildings, in underground locations, etc.
• Faster access for data sessions (even when the wide area network is available) since local area wireless technologies have more bandwidth available.
• Converged devices, so that the user can be reached at any location (home, travel, work) at the same number and, in the event the user is not reached, his messages will all go to the same mailbox.
• A cost reduction for using alternative wireless and backhaul networks, rather than operator provided networks.

As compelling as these benefits to the end user are, the benefits to the mobile operator are even more so.  Those benefits include:

• Offloading traffic from the wide area network, both in terms of offloading the licensed spectrum, and also offloading in many cases the legacy circuit switched network, since voice calls initiated from the IP networks will use VoIP.
• Lowering the cost of backhaul, since the traffic will make its way back to the mobile operator’s network via backhaul already paid for by the subscriber (ISP and Internet access).
• Enhancing the performance of the services both in areas in which the wide area coverage is weak, and in any area when the user wants access to high data rate services.
• Integration of wireless and wireline services.  Convergence allows mobile operators to enhance their revenues by accelerating the movement of (especially) voice minutes off of the fixed networks and onto the mobile networks.

Airvana’s Universal Access Gateway is the industry’s first standards-based secure mobility gateway with quality of service assurance.  The UAG not only allows operators to extend the reach of their services, but it allows them to extend them in a secure manner, securing the user traffic via IPSec, and securing their own network with Denial of Service attack prevention techniques.  Since mobility is one of the key attributes of a wireless system, the UAG enhances mobility within IP networks with the implementation of Mobile IP functionality and leading edge protocols such as MOBIKE.