As I promised on my last post “BT steps on WiMAX” . Here’s the follow up and confirmation of British Telecom’s interest to get into the WiMAX market.
As I stated in the former post, BT’s advantages in getting back into the mobile market were very clear. Five years ago they left their mobile business with the spin-off of O2 plc. Now they have seen the clear panorama of mobility and have been the leaders of the FMC (fixed-mobile convergence), which is the integration of their fixed networks with mobile (cell phone) companies, such as Vodafone.
Now with a clear interest, as a spokesperson tells to the London newspaper The Independent:
“We are naturally interested in the potential of this spectrum and we continue to assess its possible uses, including the possibility of WiMax,”
This spectrum is going to open for auctions in the early 2007, and it’s to be usable on January of 2008. As the WiMAX technology is evolving fast, it is expected that with the introduction of a mobile business line in BT, the convergence between the fixed and mobile technologies will have a big push, and the business models will mutate in several ways. The mobile operators in the UK will have still one year to react, either getting into or proposing a better alternative. The technology trends point WiMAX as the 4G, but this trends are not always the most influencing ones… Is WiMAX to become a world standard in mobility? Just wait and see.