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Telesym; what is it? Intel likes it! - seamless WiFi to GSM?

One of the star turns of last week's Intel Developer Forum, was a demonstration by Intel's Chief Technology Officer Pat Gelsinger of "seamless roaming" from WiFi wireless LAN to GSM phone data, with a prototype communicator.

Intel says that the device Gelsinger showed on stage isn't a product, and won't be sold. So what was it?

Answer: it's a single-user version of the Telesym "SymPhone" which normally costs $3,750 for ten, and isn't available as a one-off.

It's actually quite "old news" in the sense that all the excitement about Telesym came at the end of 2002, when Intel announced that it was investing $150 million in "wireless" companies in the WiFi arena. One of the companies was Telesym.

Simply put, it sells a voice-over IP solution for companies, using their wireless LAN as carrier. It's software, not hardware; you use your own portable gear - notebook, or PDA, or even WiFi phone.

Around that time, and prompted, no doubt, by the Intel mention, WiFiPlanet investigated - and actually did a test of the system: "Looking for a way to turn your Pocket PC into a cell phone? Well, TeleSym's SymPhone is not the solution for you," it said unequivocally.

In March this year, "to coincide with the launch of Centrino mobile technology," Telesym went one step further, and released its SymPhone Client software for Microsoft Windows-equipped computers. "This addition to the SymPhone System brings top-quality voice calling to users of Windows notebook, tablet and desktop personal computers, using wireless (802.11) data networks and across the Internet" it said.

Telesym's own view of the IDF demonstration was - naturally - enthusiastic. "This is a key step in the evolution of the cell phone toward more flexible, powerful handheld communications devices," the company said. "As soon as next year, we may be seeing phones on the market that have some of these features," according to Raju Gulabani, CEO and chairman of TeleSym.

He concluded: "When you're at work or home or a public Wi-Fi hotspot, your mobile phone could make calls using Wi-Fi and the Internet. And when you leave those environments, even mid-call, it would switch to cellular."

There are three components to the SymPhone System. Not one of them, today, does this seamless roaming, however.

SymPhone Client software installs on a mobile computer, enabling phone calls with a familiar dial pad and contact list.

SymPhone Client for Windows runs on Windows XP, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Windows 2000. Another version of SymPhone Client is designed for Pocket PC 2002.

WiFi Planet's review emphasises: "First, the SymPhone is in no way, shape or form a consumer product. It's a business product first and foremost. When you compare its cost to, say, giving ten employees cell phones with their accompanying monthly bills, SymPhone makes sense and saves cents ... [it] is meant for use in office or warehouse environments that have already switched over to WiFi."

The other components are server-based software: SymPhone Call Server and SymPhone Connector, which link clients together and integrate with enterprise phone systems.

You can watch a demonstration of the software - not by Gelsinger, but by Telesym CEO Raju Gulabani - but the seamless hand-over to GSM will have to wait until someone builds a dual-purpose WiFi and GSM product, and someone else sets up the SymPhone Call Server in your neighbourhood. But watch this space ...