Angal Dobardziev, a senior analyst at Ovum, likewise believes that a prime motivator behind BT's Bluephone initiative is to provide a means for traffic to pass over its network rather than that of the mobile operators. The goal is to try and guard against mobile call substitution by "giving mobility to the fixed line".
"Convergence will lead to more services, and the more services that people have, the less likely they are to churn and the more they'll be tied in. So this is not just about convergent devices — it's also about services," he explains.
Into the future, as IP networks become more widespread, such services could even include interactive TV because yet another goal is "enabling fixed and mobile operators to compete more effectively with cable companies that are starting to go down the broadband and VoIP route", Dobardziev believes.
It is this move to IP in the shape of BT's 10-year long 21st Century Network project that is at the heart of its Bluephone strategy, says Clive Longbottom, a service director at Quocirca "BT has realised that companies want more than just a fixed line voice service and with 21st Century Network coming down the line, it wants to position itself as the connectivity, communication and collaboration partner of choice for the future. So it has to start doing visionary stuff," he explains.
Therefore, as a first step, the telco is trying to persuade customers to move to a single handset for all of their voice communications requirements, with the idea that, in future, they won't have to worry about which transport mechanism is carrying the traffic. Longbottom claims that Bluephone could be seen as simply BT's way of trying to get people on the roadmap to VoIP. "As BT brings in its 21st Century Network, users won't have to know whether they're using fixed, mobile or wireless networks as they'll all be based on IP."
One of the underlying notions here is that the future consolidation of voice and data networks into a single IP infrastructure is also likely to lead to consolidation in the number of network providers that organisations want to deal with for their communications needs — and BT is determined not to be left out in the cold." The more the world moves to IP, the more organisations are going to go to a single network provider to cater to all of their communications needs so if something goes wrong, they know who to point to," says Longbottom.
The challenge for the mobile operators, however, is that, if BT does succeed in pulling more and more consumers and businesses over to its network, they stand to lose as their former ally becomes a potentially dangerous rival. "Because BT no longer has a mobile capability after selling off Cellnet in 2001, it partnered with T-Mobile and is now going with Vodafone. It makes sense for it to co-operate here, but if, in future, it takes its OpenZone Wi-Fi offering to the next level and adds WiMax metropolitan area network support, the question is: why should it hand over calls to mobile operators?" says Longbottom.
