UK launches mobile home
phone
By Sun News
Monday, June 20, 2005
The world’s first cell phone that can
switch between fixed and mobile networks has been launched
in the UK.
The new service is being offered by British Telecom, which
said it expected “millions” of customers to sign
up for its “BT Fusion” package over the next five
years.
Subscribers get a Motorola v560 phone that links up to BT’s
fixed-line network via a Bluetooth wireless broadband hub
at home. But users can also make calls on the move over Vodafone’s
mobile network.
The hub works as a wireless router for PCs, laptops, games
consoles and other computer technology, around the house.
Six phones per home can be registered with the service, with
up to three in use at any time.
Ian Livingston, head of BT Retail, said the service would
“transform the communications landscape.”
“You get all the convenience and features of a mobile
phone but with a fixed line cost and the quality you are used
to with a fixed line,” Livingston said.
“We know that many of our customers enjoy the convenience
of their mobile phones when they’re out and about –
but switch to using a landline phone when they arrive back
home, to save money or because they have little or no mobile
coverage.”
BT, which hopes to attract families and small businesses,
will initially offer the service to 400 customers before rolling
it out across the UK, from September.
Further handsets developed by Nokia and Samsung are expected
to be ready in around a year’s time.
BT said that a 10-minute off-peak phone call from home, made
using BT Fusion, would be 95 per cent cheaper than the same
call made, using a typical mobile package.
The former telecoms monopoly, is seeking to stem the growing
number of calls made via mobile networks rather than over
its predominant fixed line network.
It has also targeted $1.8 billion in annual revenues over
five years, from mobility and convergence services.
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