As WiMAX and LTE duke it out over the future of wireless connectivity, Wi-Fi—spurred on by the 802.11n standard—continues to grow by leaps and bounds. As several key market verticals, including healthcare, contend with the rapid adoption of laptop computers, Wi-Fi-enabled mobile handsets and other devices, it’s easy to see why unified communications and videoconferencing specialist Polycom recently declared: VoIP is the future.
In fairness, it wasn’t that long ago that the convergence of VoIP and WLAN tech meant dealing with proprietary equipment, weak security, and a lack of scalable network management tools. But, as an article in Enterprise Networking Planet points out, the VoWLAN landscape is changing rapidly with evolving standards, new equipment, and the arrival of some decent management tools.
During HIMSS09, I conducted a brief video interview with Ben Guderian, Polycom’s vice president for product marketing for WLAN voice products, who said the healthcare industry’s unique demands are helping to shape the company’s video and wireless telephony offerings.
Since the arrival of 802.11n has helped mitigate concerns over the reliability and stability of WLANs—and since healthcare workforces continue to mobilize rapidly—the development of voice over WLAN technology seems like a safe enough bet, particularly for in-building mobile workers, who need a less expensive alternative to cell phones for maintaining communications with colleagues and patients.
For Polycom, the obvious answer is to integrate all these wireless handsets into healthcare organizations’ PBX systems, which may explain why VoIP phones were among the company’s fastest growing product lines in 2008.
According to a recent TMCnet.com report, both Trapeze Networks and Aruba Networks recently achieved Polycom’s VIEW certification, a kind of interoperability testing process between the SpectraLink wireless handsets and Wi-Fi access points. “When you factor in the record fiscal Q1 2009 reported by Aruba, which it followed with additional growth in Q2,” the report states, “it can be expected that Polycom will see significant growth in its wireless VoIP phones as well, especially now that they have been certified with the Aruba solutions.”
Obviously, this news bodes well for Polycom, but it also means an alternative for healthcare organizations that need to enable immediate access to key personnel, regardless of where they are located on the premises.
HealthcareGoesMobile.com wants to hear from healthcare organizations that have implemented voice over WLAN technologies to streamline communications and to reduce costs. Has the adoption of VoWLAN technology enabled your organization’s caregivers to spend more time with patients? Have the barriers to VoWLAN implementation been addressed to the point where you feel the technology is now a no-brainer? Did the ongoing WiMAX-LTE debate have any affect on your organization’s decision to implement VoWLAN technology?
John Farrell participates in HealthcareGoesMobile.com as a community correspondent through Intel’s paid sponsorship with MedTech Publishing Company.
