British Telecom is planning to launch a Mobility Services portfolio
of mobile products for UK business customers in June.
It intends to launch the UK's first public access wireless LAN
(WLAN) network, sell WLAN services, and become a virtual
mobile-phone operator. All services will, initially, target
business customers, the company said.
BT aims to have about 400 WLAN hotspots operating by June 2003,
increasing to up to 4,000 sites in mid-2005. The WLAN service will
be offered at public sites such as hotels, railway stations,
airports and coffee shops. It will allow users to connect to the
Internet or their corporate network wirelessly using a laptop
computer or another device equipped with a WLAN card. Pricing
options will include annual subscriptions and prepaid vouchers, BT
said.
The public access WLAN network will use IEEE 802.11b technology,
which operates in the 2.4GHz radio spectrum. The UK
Radiocommunications Agency is expected to authorise commercial use
of that band soon, according to BT.
In the future, BT intends to upgrade the network to the IEEE
802.11a standard, a spokeswoman said. An 802.11a operates in the
5GHz spectrum and allows faster data transmission.
Partners in the WLAN network are Motorola and Cisco. Talks are
under way with the Costa Coffee chain, as well as many of the
leading retailers and property owners to install hotspots on their
premises, BT said.
BT's WLAN aspirations - which it expects to generate extra revenue
of at least £30ma year in three years - do not stop at the street.
The company will also target its corporate customers for WLAN
installations in their offices and will launch a consumer WLAN
product before the end of the year, BT said. Product details will
come in June.
The company also plans to get back into mobile telephony, following
the sale of its mobile-telephony business unit last year.
It will create a mobile-telephony service provider that will
operate on the network of mm02, the unit spun off last year.
Through this virtual mobile operator, BT will offer customers
unified billing for fixed and mobile communications and also sell
other mobile devices such as the Blackberry mobile e-mail device.
BT expects this business to bring in about £150m in additional
revenue in three years' time.