Have you ever heard about a new technology offering or idea that instantly made you cringe? Maybe something that you knew, deep in your heart, had absolutely no future and seemed like a Full Employment Act for a carrier’s marketing department, but little more? This month in Ask Steve let’s talk about one such concept: fixed-mobile convergence.

Terry from Toronto, Ontario: A few years ago we heard a lot of talk about FMC (fixed-mobile convergence). What happened to all the talk?

Steve: Terry, FMC was a doomed concept from the get-go. It’s a marketing play that describes carrier’s desires to integrate the fixed and mobile sides of its business. AT&T is working to create a successful company out of the difficulties of separate fixed and mobile businesses. Verizon is dealing with similar issues, although these days we haven’t the foggiest what Verizon is doing in SMB markets as they, once again, seem to be on a long SMB lunch break.

While FMC might be a nice moniker for a communications carrier’s internal re-organizing, it’s a terrible marketing concept for SMBs. It’s really hard to show the inherent value in a bunch of mobile-enabled telecom features that, at their heart, are fixed-line PBX-type features ported over to a mobile device. For example, how exciting is transferring a desk-based phone call to your mobile phone? Or how about 4-digit dialing on your mobile phone? Some employees might get hot-and-bothered about these features, but certainly not enough to create an FMC super-nova.

The bigger issue is the movement toward anywhere connectivity and employees’ desires to use technology to increase productivity and balance home/work commitments. In 2007, 24% of Canadian SMBs look at the smart phone (Blackberry, Treo, iPhone, etc.) as their primary mobility device. That number will almost double to 45% by 2010.