According to a number of reports, the BBC among them, BT has been forced to have a major rethink over its Fusion product, where one handset is used to make calls over both VoIP and mobile networks, after poor takeup.
According to those reports, BT is not dropping the service, but is going to start focusing on a more data-centric offering with a dual-mode BlackBerry-type device, and pushing the service as an enterprise product.
It’s a bit of a shame that Fusion never really took off. It was, if nothing else, an attempt to take mobile somewhere different and kill off the landline for good. That said, the tiny range of handsets was bound to put gadget-conscious users off and the pricing wasn’t as competitive as it could have been. Hopefully it’ll get a new lease of life – not to mention some whizz-bang applications – as an enterprise play.
I’d like to refer readers to this post I made almost exactly a year ago to the day:
BT Wi-FI mobile. I’ll eat my hat if more than 4 people have signed up.
We even included that story in the annual (have a look).
[…] one closely – this will pit C&W against BT in FMC services. BT’s own service, Fusion, is in for a bit of a refit at the moment, and should be due out in a more data-centric incarnation some time […]