BT dumps FMC offering after poor consumer uptake

Launched with great fanfare in 2005, the U.K.'s former state telco, BT, has now quietly dropped its Fusion FMC solution. The company had proudly stated that it expected Fusion would generate £1 billion from new mobile and convergence services within five years--instead only 45,000 people have subscribed to date (not the millions forecast) and the company has now stopped advertising the service.

The sales pitch was that users could make cheap or free calls using the Fusion handset at home over BT broadband, and switch to the Vodafone network or BT's WiFi hotspots outside. However, the concept seems to have proven too challenging for potential users to grasp.

Regardless of this setback, BT is now reported to be testing a service that would allow heavy users of BT broadband to access the web on the move using BlackBerry-type devices made by Taiwan's HTC.

For more on this story:
- read Daily Telegraph and AFXnews