The first competition in the fixed-mobile convergence space will likely happen in Europe in November, with both British Telecom and France Telecom's mobile business Orange launching similar products at the same time. Orange gave some details about its FMC service, which will enable customers to use a mobile phone to make calls via broadband. Orange initially will have three handsets to choose from--the Motorola A910, Nokia 6136 and the Samsung P200. When at home, the device connects via WiFi to the Orange Livebox hub and calls are routed via the Internet. Outside of the 'home zone' the handset routes calls via Orange's mobile network. BT's Fusion is offering Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology, but has only been able to offer "home zone" calls over Bluetooth to date, since WiFi-enabled handsets are not yet available. BT said it will introduce the Motorola A910 when its available, likely in November.
To read more about FMC competition heating up in Europe:
- check out this article from telecoms.com (sub. req.)