Disruptive Telephony

The news today out of the WiFi Alliance was that almost 100 phones have become "Wi-Fi Certified" in their testing from 2004 to the present.  What's interesting to me is that most of those phones seem to be "dual mode" sets designed for the cellular market.  The news release indicates that there are 82 dual-mode phones and 10 single-mode phones... which is a bit puzzling because the list of Wi-Fi Certified handsets shows only 89 handsets, leaving 3 unaccounted for.  Browsing down the list, I can immediately see a WiFi handset for Skype and the wireless Skype/VoIP phones from Cisco/Linksys and D-Link.  One annoying detail - all of the listed models take you to the main home page of the vendor, so you then have to dig to find the phone... would be MUCH better if the link took you directly to the product page of the specific product. I have no idea what some of these phones are (nor do I really have the time/interest to dig for them).

 I don't see the Netgear and Belkin 802.11 Skype phones, nor do I see many of the zillion wireless SIP phones that are out there.  So either: 1) those phones are still being tested by the WFA; 2) the vendors don't see the value in WFA certification; or perhaps 3) the vendors aren't really aware of the certification.  In any event, the net is that there are obviously a lot more 802.11 phones out there beyond this long list.  Nice to see so many dual-mode mobile phones... an obvious sign of the rising reality of Fixed-Mobile Convergence (FMC).