Motorola Unveils Hybrid Wi-Fi-Cellular Gateway

Motorola Inc. is hitting the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week with a new product that it said will make a huge connection between home and wireless-phone service.

The Motorola “Residential Seamless Mobility Gateway” will allow consumers to use a single mobile handset and phone number when making calls at home and outside of the home.

The gateway does so by supplying an 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi access point, a four-port router and a built-in voice-over-Internet-protocol adaptor. When in the home, voice calls are funneled over the Wi-Fi network, connecting to standard telephones or a growing number of hybrid cellular-Wi-Fi-capable mobile handsets.

If home users have hybrid handsets, they also can start a call in the home and then leave, with the system automatically switching the connection from the home Wi-Fi network to the greater cellular-wireless network without interrupting the call.

The first two products included in the RSG gateway family are the single-VoIP-line “RSG2500,” expected to be available early this year. A follow-up “RSG3500,” set for rollout this summer, will add the ability to power two primary VoIP lines.

One big advantage for the RSG line of products is that it eliminates a vexing problem many homeowners face -- lousy cellular reception inside the home. Motorola RSG products give consumers freedom for personal communications:

The gateway also has intelligence to set priority for voice calls over other data traffic on the home Wi-Fi network, as well as offering support for popular call features such as multiple lines, caller ID, call waiting, three-way calling and call forwarding.

“This latest Motorola innovation breaks traditional concepts of personal communication without sacrificing ease of use or functionality," said Charles Dougherty, corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola’s connected-home-solutions unit, in a release.

"The Motorola RSG creates one integrated system for communicating in and out of the home, helping consumers to realize the economical advantage of simplified billing and improved service," Dougherty added.