Enterprise FMC will be trialled this year using Wi-Fi in offices, homes and BT Openzone hotspots

BT has announced plans for a fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) service for large businesses. Although the telecoms giant already offers this service to homes and smaller firms via BT Fusion, the new system runs over Wi-Fi instead of Bluetooth.

Codenamed Enterprise FMC (EFMC), the service will be piloted with corporate customers from late 2006 using Wi-Fi located in offices, homes and BT Openzone hotspots. The system will be delivered through BT’s existing Fusion partnership with Alcatel.

"We'll be able to support multiple international sites with this,” said Steven Evans, BT's head of wireless broadband. “It will sit in BT's core network and allow us to incorporate multiple mobile users into a wide area environment. "

Jeremy Green of analyst Ovum warned that there were still “lots and lots of problems” involved in making dual-mode Wi-Fi/cellular services work properly, however. "If you've already got a Wi-Fi network, what you originally put it in for was to provide untethered coverage for laptops,” he said. “You didn't set out to provide blanket telephone coverage, or the capacity to cover everyone using Wi-Fi to make phone calls."

Evans said that initially BT would have to survey customers’ wireless LANs, to ensure that coverage, resiliency and capacity would be sufficient to run EMFC properly.

BT is collaborating with several dual-mode handset vendors to support the service, and Vodafone will be the firm’s partner on the mobile side.