BtFusion
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BT hits the sauce, mulls return to mobile market
Maybe we're just way, way off base here, but we're fairly certain the UK mobile market doesn't need yet another competitor that won't offer anything substantially different than what's already out there. According to a new report from The Observer, BT is considering the launch of a mobile phone operation as part of a "joint venture with T-Mobile and 3 in a bid to boost profits by cashing in on the migration of broadband and internet services to mobile devices." Of course, BT has dabbled in hybrid handsets before, but as expected, adoption was remarkably low. Our take? We can't see a washed-up mobile operator being any more successful in today's trying times than it was originally, but hey, we'll gladly sit back and watch the fireworks if it has the stones to try.[Via mocoNews]
BT Group chatting up FON for partnership
Good news all 'round for BT Fusion, BT Broadband and FON lovers of the UK: BT Group is reportedly in talks with FON for a hefty partnership that extends the services of both companies extensively. In exchange for allowing BT Fusion users to replace those pricey Vodafone minutes on their phones with free FON WiFi UMA lovin', BT will officially give its blessing to users sharing their BT bandwidth over FON -- ISPs usually frown on the practice -- and even go so far as to push a FON firmware upgrade to its own users' broadband routers. Subscribers can opt out, but we're sure plenty of users will bite at the chance, since signing up for FON not only gives you profit sharing from people who pay to use your access point, but also gives you free WiFi access to other FON routers. With the 10,000 FON users already in Britain, the country could become one of the top spots for free-ish WiFi, and might give BT one of the best UMA services around, but neither company is talking about the deal just yet, so we'll wait for everything to be legit before we do our little "free WiFi party" dance.[Via WNN; thanks R Gomez]
