BT LAUNCHES BT FUSION, FIXED AND MOBILE TELEPHONY.

• Position: British Telecommunications PLC - Brief Article

British telecommunications company BT Group announced on June 15 the launch of BT Fusion, a new service combining both mobile and fixed telephones. "BT Fusion works like a mobile phone when you leave your house but connects automatically and without interruption to a fixed BT broadband line when the subscriber returns home," according to a statement from the group, claiming a world first. "This means that you have all the advantages and all the possibilities of a mobile phone but at the price and with the quality of a fixed line," it added. These convergent handsets combining distinct technologies in a single application (internet telephony with wireless access and mobile telephony) will be produced by hardware manufacturer Motorola, according to the group.

BT hopes this new service, which will use the mobile telephony giant Vodafone's network, will help it put an end to the decline in its fixed telephony activities. Not only have the latter suffered as a result of a price war with alternative operators like Tele2, but BT has also...