Brandname, pricing, handset supplier and host mobile operator all named
by Richard Thurston.
BT has launched what it claims is the world’s first converged fixed and mobile telecoms service. It has revealed a solution where a single handset can be used to make and receive calls on both the GSM network and on Bluetooth networks in subscribers’ homes.
Using so-called UMA technology (Unlicensed Mobile Access), subscribers will be able to roam from GSM to their home network and vice versa without the call being dropped.
When the subscriber is within range of their Bluetooth basestation, the call is passed to a Bluetooth hub, and sent via a broadband DSL line to the internet.
Eighteen operators are working on fixed-mobile convergence projects like this, but all the others are currently in trial phase.
The operators, which include BT, Cegetel, KPN and Swisscom, have formed FMCA – the Fixed Mobile Convergence Alliance – to develop services like the one BT has launched today.
BT is using the GSM network of Vodafone and a handset
from Motorola for the solution, which it has branded as BTFusion.BT already piggybacks on the Vodafone network as an MVNO.
It will charge existing mobile rates for calls, except for calls made over the Bluetooth/DSL connection to a UK geographic number.
The handset and Bluetooth hub – which is also WiFi enabled – are supplied for free, while the monthly subscription is either £9.99 or £14.99, depending on the quantity of bundled minutes included.
BT will allow just 400 customers to use the service until it has ironed out the rest of the glitches. It plans a commercial launch in September – 19 months after its original scheduled release.
BT intends Bluetooth to be a stepping stone to a WiFi/GSM roaming solution, which it intends to release next summer.
But for the time being the telco is insistent it will not upgrade to 3G, preferring to work on roaming to and from GSM.