TELECOMMUNICATIONS: ALLIANCE OF OPERATORS TO PROMOTE FIXED/MOBILE SERVICES.

• Position: Brief Article

Several leading telecommunications operators have forged an alliance to promote a combination of fixed and mobile services, notably regarding terminals and invoicing, according to a report in the Financial Times (FT). The operators involved include Britain's BT, Japanese mobile telephony operator NTT DoCoMo, Swisscom, Korea Telecom, Brazil Telecom and the leading Australian operator Telstra. The French operator SFR/Cegetel, has rejected FT claims that it is also part of the alliance, though a spokesman indicated that it "does not rule out a partnership or alliance with other operators in the longer term". The "Fixed-to-Mobile Convergence Alliance" hopes to influence future development, notably by encouraging leading equipment manufacturers to develop handsets capable of operating on both fixed and mobile networks.

Fixed operators are keen to check the migration of traffic towards mobile telephony whilst mobile telephony operators hope new...