BT is to move into the corporate marketplace with a converged fixed / mobile proposition.
The service will allow staff to make and receive calls using just one handset on both the enterprise wireless LAN and the GSM mobile network.
It should also enable businesses to reduce their telephony bill, as calls made on the handset within the office will be charged at landline rates.
The planned release is a major upgrade to BT’s existing proposition, called BTFusion, which can only handle three simultaneous calls.
Steve Evans, BT’s wireless broadband chief told Communications News, “We are planning a major initiative in the larger enterprise space. Commercial launch will be in early 2007, with beta customers towards the back end of this year.”
He said the proposition, which has a working name of ‘Enterprise FMC’, would use SIP (a standard for setting up multimedia communications sessions), rather than the UMA technique used in the existing Fusion service.
Two of the vendors currently installing equipment in BT’s next-generation network, 21CN, will help to provide the FMC solution.
Alcatel’s SIP server and Ericsson’s i-node will route calls directly to the required handset, using a so-called ‘presence’ capability, irrespective of whether the user is in or out of the office.
But enterprises will have to use one of a selected range of PBXs.
Evans said that eventually the majority of PBXs will be supported, but on launch only a handful will work.
Those few will include Nortel, Avaya and Cisco, he said.
No modification of the PBX will need to take place, but BT will undertake some work on the LAN as part of the installation of the FMC system, including the provision of a new gateway.
Evans said it was not decided which handsets would be offered, but he noted that Motorola and Nokia both sell appropriate handsets.
Most major voice features will be available, including call forwarding, call hold, conferencing and secretarial functions.
Calls will be charged at landline rates if made over the wireless LAN, and mobile rates if made outside the office.
GSM calls will be carried over the Vodafone network.
Users will be able to roam between access points, and from the wireless LAN out onto the GSM network.
However, once on the GSM network calls are retained, and users will not be able to roam back onto the wireless LAN without terminating the call.
Calls to other users on the corporate data network will be free.
Enterprises will also need to ensure there is sufficient capacity on their wireless LAN.
Voice calls would use about 12Kbps of bandwidth per call, Evans said.
BT plans to retain its Fusion offering for small businesses, and consumers, and will transition the former from the present Bluetooth technology across to WiFi later this year.
The telco, alongside the likes of Cable & Wireless and COLT, has also this month purchased a low-power GSM licence, which gives users a alternative way of using just one handset for calls inside and outside the office.
Evans dismissed the competition to BT that C&W and COLT could provide with these licences, but acknowledged there would be businesses that would buy both WiFi/GSM and pure GSM solutions.
BT has not yet laid out its plans for deploying low-power GSM.