BT Group Launches Bluephone

From the CTIA Newswire: "BT Group launched its combined wireline and wireless phone service, Bluephone, under the provider's BT Fusion brand. The handset operates as a wireless phone outside of the home and seamlessly switches onto a BT broadband line inside the house. The Bluephone promises better call quality and less expensive voice calls inside the home compared to using a conventional wireless phone. According to reports, the device is being monitored closely by other telecom providers around the world. (Source: Dow Jones Newswire)"

BT has been at the forefront of landline providers, attempting to merge wireline and wireless services. About a year or so ago, they offered ability to send and receive text messages on landline phones, acknowledging that this is an important practice among wireless phone users in the UK and wireline phone users may be disadvantaged (not to mention the idea that this may be profitable). I am not sure what happened with that service, but I suspect it didn't meet with much demand (I could be awefully wrong though). Now they are attempting to offer a service that will float between wireless and broadband services, providing better quality voice service and less expensive calls. However, such a machine is likely to be initially quite pricey so it's the quality of calls and not cheaper service that will attract initial buyers I suspect. Lets see whether the quality will really be that much better to attract enough buyers to make the system viable in the long run. Not so sure about that quite yet.

On a similar topic: "KDDI Corp. announced its proposal to merge its wireline and wireless networks, with the intent of providing seamless services. The company plans to start constructing the network in 2007 and is expected to offer services based on the network in 2009 or 2010. The benefit of a single network allows users to have a central data account that could potentially include email, streaming video or contact information, which they can access from their personal computer, wireless phone or a telephone console with a screen. In preparation for the new network, KDDI said it intended to upgrade its current 3G network in 2006. (Source: Reuters)"

The latter makes a lot of sense if you consider that the wireline phone provides all the same services as the wireless phone except it seems to work better inside buildings (and the infrustructure is more dependible). If the networks were to be merged, the social and economic reasons for keeping a wireline phone still may encourage users to keep the wireline. So... instead of trying to make the wireline go away (it probably won't), why not integrate it into a complete package with the rest of the "networked digital home".