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NEWS

"BT to develop global wi-fi"

by Tony Glover, The Business Online,19 February 2006:

"[British Telecom] wants to build a global wi-fi network to enable customers to make cheap mobile calls routed over the internet anywhere in the world.

"The company is understood to be in talks with overseas internet and telecoms operators to sign roaming agreements. They could include rivals that have also developed wi-fi networks such as Germany's Deutsche Telecom.

"The agreements would allow BT's mobile-phone users to travel with their phones. The advantages of a wi-fi enabled phone would increase when the user went abroad. BT already has a roaming deal in the UK with wi-fi operator The Cloud, which gives BT customers access to 4,000 wi-fi hotspots in coffee bars, pubs and hotels, for instance.

"Most business travellers have learned to their cost that mobile operators generally place a huge mark-up on calls made outside the country.

"By using voice over internet protocol (VoIP) and allowing users wi-fi access, BT could shave more than 90% off the cost of an international mobile voice call.

"Adoption of BT's mobile service will start to mushroom once customers see the savings made by avoiding the mobile operators' cellular networks where possible, claims BT's head of mobility Steven Andrews. To date, BT has only signed up 14,000 mobile users, with new customers accounting for another 2,500 a month.

"Andrews is convinced that, even without direct advertising, the attraction of internet calling over a mobile phone will prove a big enough pull to attract the kind of numbers that will enable BT to build a significant mobile arm not reliant on developing expensive cellular networks.

"By the end of the year there will be about 20 handsets capable of switching between ordinary GSM mobile networks and the low-radius wireless networks (wi-fi) that BT is rolling out in 12 city centres across the UK. BT will not offer all 20, but a selection of the best. BT also hopes to convert millions of homes to wi-fi by making it the core technology of its BT Fusion service that provides BT customers with wireless access to BT's network.

"BT's first wi-fi enabled phone, unveiled at last week's 3GSM, is made by Motorola. BT also plans to launch a second generation wi-fi phone later this year. According to Andrews, today's phones are adequate for internet voice calls over a wi-fi connection, but are not designed specifically for the task. Andrews believes that the new session initiation protocol (SIP) phones - which flip between wi-fi and cellular networks - will offer a superior service.

"But encouraging customers to use wi-fi to move away from expensive cellular networks and on to BT's internet-based network is a key element in BT's strategy to undercut the mobile-phone operators' network services.

"BT can afford to give away mobile voice calls as a way to differentiate itself from the other internet services starting to offer combined communications and entertainment services over the internet."

[WiFi: 19 February 2006]