British telecom giant BT announced the world’s first venture into combining mobile and land line services into the new BT Fusion service. BT customers will be able to switch between their mobile and landed broadband lines as they come and go from their home or office.
BT’s pitch on this is one gets the convenience and features of the mobile and the quality and rates of the land line. Calls over broadband in the home means customers can make a mobile call but with the quality of a fixed-line and worry less about the signal being lost or dropping out. A recent survey of BT Broadband customer revealed that as many as 19 per cent had experienced problems with mobile coverage in the home.
Ian Livingston, CEO for BT Retail, said: “We promised to launch the world’s first seamless combined fixed and mobile service and now we’re doing it. The service will transform the communications landscape and bring excellent value to customers.
This new system will work will be a Blue Tooth hub set up in the home and the hub will also act as a Wi-Fi wireless router. BT says that the switching process will work seamlessly as you come into range or move out of the range of the hub, even if the user is in mid call.
When users sign up for the service, they get a Motorola V560 mobile phone and the hub. The small flip phone has 5 megs of memory and a digital camera and many other standard features. The hub acts as the Blue Tooth and Wi-Fi in the home. One can hook up to 6 mobile phones to it and handle 3 simultaneous calls and then broadband access to the Internet for PCs and game consoles.
The system looks pretty keen on a number of levels. It certainly provides the one-stop-shop so many businesses strive for. Users will be able to take care of everything in one punch and, just like the good old days when the phone company provided you with the phone.
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
