1st mobile, fixed-line phone
p2pnet.net News:- Britons have the world’s first hybrid mobile.
Calls made from BT Fusion at home will run on BT’s broadband network and be charged at fixed-line rates, says the Guardian Unlimited.
Outside, they’ll run on Vodafone’s GSM network billable at mobile rates with all incoming calls also charged at mobile rates.
BT spun off its O<->2 mobile division in 2001, but has been developing Fusion over the past two years, says the Guardian.
Subscribers will have a Motorola v560 clamshell and an access point in the home, called a BT Hub, which will switch the mobile to broadband using Bluetooth wireless technology, according to the BBC. And they`ll be offered two price plans of £10 (about $18.20) and £15 (about $27.30) a month.
BT Fusion will let users make calls to UK landlines at its off-peak landline rate of 5.5 pence for up to an hour, and 3p a minute at peak hours.
BT hub also works as a wireless router, providing users access to PCs, laptops and games consoles wirelessly around the home, says the story, adding customers would need a BT telephone line and a subscription to BT Broadband.
However, the new phone is only available to 400 “early adopters” with a full roll-out expected in September and business version coming in the autumn, says the Guardian.
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See:-
Guardian Unlimited – Home and away: big launch for BT’s hybrid fixed-line mobile, June 16, 2005
BBC – BT to launch fixed-mobile service, June 16, 2005
June 17th, 2005 at 2:20 am
This isn’t new. Nor a world first.
The phone company Hutchison Telecommunications Australia, which is partly owned by Hutchison Whampoa of Hong Kong and owns rights to the Orange name in Oz has been offering this in a similar manner now for almost 5 years.
You pick a “local zone” when you buy the phone and can change it from month to month. Calls made within that local zone are charged as landline calls.
Calls made outside the local zone are charged as mobile calls based on whatever plan you are on. I believe it’s an option on their new 3g network as well, tho don’t quote me on that.