BT reveals first corporate Fusion user

British Telecom announced the much awaited version of its fixed mobile convergence solution – BT Fusion – revamped for the enterprise market, Thursday.

When the original consumer service launched last year, it only offered a single access point, offering fixed line rates when a handset is communicating over Bluetooth and GSM calling over Vodafone’s network when out of range.

The enterprise version offers multiple access points, allowing connectivity for many users, and also supports wi-fi connectivity.

The first customer to trial the service in the UK is Leeds City Council (LCC), which has the largest in-house ICT provision of any local authority.

The authority is piloting BT Corporate Fusion across two of its premises, in order to assess its capability to improve productivity and improve communications. Employees involved in the trial will use a GSM/wi-fi dual-mode phone, which is expected to be the Motorola A910, although BT made no mention of this in the announcement.

Adrian Fegan, head of ICT operations at Leeds City Council said “BT’s Corporate Fusion service allows us to operate more efficiently, by reducing our telecoms spend, which is critically important for an organisation spending public funds. And it also gives us the opportunity to be more responsive – our employees can be more mobile and contactable”.

Following the first customer trial, the service will be commercially launched in the UK and Italy in early 2007, followed by a phased international roll out in Germany, Benelux, Spain and France.