Cisco/Moto Cellular/WiFi Deal is Dead/Gone

Light Reading reports that "a cellular/WiFi roaming technology partnership between Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Motorola (NYSE: MOT) has gone the way of the dodo. And the culprit could be carrier reluctance to buy in to some vendor fixed/mobile convergence ideas."

According to the article, the two companies announced plans that "would cobble together technologies that would allow mobile handsets to roam seamlessly between WiFi and cellular networks. And the products were supposed to hit the market sometime this year."

There is some speculation the deal was called off due to some bad blood between other divisions within the two companies, such as the set-top box business in which Ciso acquired Motorola competitor Scientific Atlanta."

Motorola claimed it was due to network operator "uncertainty around the value proposition," and that the company hoped to "support all major PBX systems with its upcoming devices."
Ken Dulaney at Gartner said, "Motorola cannot ignore Cisco's position in the enterprise PBX market and will support them along with Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT - message board), Avaya and others."