BT Bluephone Launch

The Business says that BT will give Bluephone the Green Light this week. A friend called this evening to tell me that the PR launch is tomorrow and was I going and what should he ask given the opportunity.

My thought was how are BT going to package Bluephone and who was the phone aimed at?

BT settled on Bluetooth when that was the most viable technology for a connection to a fixed line base station. Now it is clearly obvious that a Wi-Fi connection would be superior and rumour has it that version 1.1 will substitute Wi-Fi for Bluetooth.

Nonetheless BT looks determined to press ahead with an offering that will be outmoded virtually at launch.

The difference is that BT's service - in conjunction with Vodafone - will enable a landline call to 'hand over' to a cellular link. We all know how badly that technology worked with 3G where 2G to 3G calls failed to make the link reliably for ages. Why should the Bluephone perform any better?

And anyway, the real answer is to use one of the few existing GSM plus Wi-Fi handset to make a Skype connexion via a home base station and then swap to cellular outside the home.

BT needs a very clever trick up its sleeve to make the Bluephone fly. Including a new name for the Bluephone.

No Need to go to school today!

Just read about Coventry University's plan to narrowcast lectures via 3G phones. Now I am all for extending education but one of the benefits I found to attending the lecture hall was to socialise as well as gfet a better understanding of my course work. I also seem to remember that my fellow arts students were quite fit and so when the speaker was boring we had something else to listen to.

The future is out there, but will users pay for it?

FT-IT review has a report on the latest research from Analysys on a Wireless Services Roadmap.

They look at the fact that ARPU is higher for 3G users than 2G, and thus the networks are looking at how they can increase speed again so that we can adopt 4G technologies such as WiMAX. In giving faster connection we can have DVB-H and improve web browsing, e-mail and video calling. My only observation is just how many people want to watch TV on a tiny device. Also just how can we power such devices as at present my wireless laptop last for three hours without charging?

I think that teh adoption of wireless data services is about blue collar solutions that allow workers to work smarter rather than technology that allows managers to work slowly anywhere. Once the networks get that and start developing technologies that remove latency in the network then we could see mobile take off once again just how the research firms have been predicting.