BT Mulling VoIP with WiFi

I think it’s only a matter of time for VoWiFI to really take hold and feel that the biggest sellers of VoWiFI will be one of two types of companies–the cable operators or the mobile operators.

Here’s why. Access to the customers.

The mobile operators have storefronts, agents and already mail to their customers or email bills. That gives them real estate, mindshare and distribution. That means they have lots of repeat access and the ability to bundle both traditional wireless services like cellular and data (wow, I’m calling them traditional) with VoIP and VoIP over WiFi in one complete bundle, thus disintermediating the traditional telco.

That’s what makes BT’s pending move into the market in the UK so interesting. Basically BT has been going forward with win at all cost strategy when it comes to WiFi, first building out hot spots, then forming roaming alliances. Back in 2001 they unloaded their mobile phone service by unbundling the wireless division and lauching 02 as a standalone or spun out company.

Now with their apparent decision to go into the WiFi VoIP business the are going right after some of the same customers they sold off and using the old call box locations and new hotspot locations for WiFi. Add in that BT is also pushing a competitive VoIP product for landline replacement, and has a deal with Yahoo as part of integrating in with Yahoo’s IM client, Messenger and you start to see the idea of always on, always connected, with only the mobile piece missing.

Now look at their roaming partner, T-Mobile and the missing piece seems to fall into place. BT doesn’t need to be in the mobile phone business, they just need to resell in one direction or the other. Between their own hotspot footprint, that of T-Mobile and their other large hotspot partner, "The Cloud" you have the makings of a very connected universe for people who are either nomadic during the day or at home working or just talking. This all spells good news for a company like Bridgeport-Networks, who I have written about before because their technology plays such a pivotal role in making the one device work on all the networks regardless of platform (i.e 3G, GPRS, WiFi, WiMax, WiWhatever)

Now let’s look at the cable companies. They are in a perfect position if they ever figure it out to be in the WiFi business too. All they have to do is turn on cable in retail locations and offices in a big way by installing WiFi in every cable box and combining a broadband modem. Can we get to One Box Please !!!! But their bigger play may come from WiMax. The cable operators have all those green boxes that are their hubs on streets. If each of those was WiMax enabled you would have the ability to make phone calls too using VoIP.

But the handoff technology isn’t quite there yet, but when it finally arrives the combination of WiFi, WiMax, 3G and VoIP all in one device, via one carrier will make this all a very connected world. In the near term, I think the mobile carriers are the ones who are in position to grab market share from the traditional telcos, which also explains why AT&T is going into the mobile phone market here in the USA.

VoIP + Mobile means bye bye RBOC for many, and by being friendly with the cable MSOs as AT&T already is, they have a strong alliance partner.