BT Changes Mind About Branded Mobile Service

BT appears to have changed its mind about the retail mobile market. Having won 4G spectrum (2x15 MHz of FDD and 20 MHz of TDD 2.6GHz spectrum), BT suggested it would not build a national retail network but use the 4G spectrum as a way to augment its fixed network operations.

Now BT says it will launch its own retail 4G network. The thinking is that BT will source wholesale mobile connectivity from one of the U.K. mobile service providers to provide full mobile access, while using its own spectrum largely for fixed or location access.

That raises some interesting new questions. BT is not the first service provider to imagine using a mix of wholesale “mobile” access and “Wi-Fi access whenever possible.” Republic Wireless, for example, is using precisely that approach, offloading Internet access to Wi-Fi whenever possible.

But the new issue is the degree to which Wi-Fi roaming could allow an ISP to create an “untethered” but not fully mobile service offering, as cable operators basically are doing with their public hotspot networks, creating a national Wi-Fi roaming capability.

In BT’s case, wholesale mobile spectrum would allow users to use the Internet when they are in transit, with the expectation that most Internet use will happen when people are at home, at work, or within range of a public Wi-Fi hotspot.

That is why some believe small cells incorporating Wi-Fi will be a game changer for mobile service providers, easing heavily congested data pipes while linking together billions of devices into a single network architecture, according to the IHS iSuppli.

Small cells--low-power base stations each supporting approximately 100 to 200 simultaneous users--will augment mobile coverage and capacity in dense urban areas.

That is the mirror image of the BT approach, which augments fixed coverage with a mobile overlay.

So where mobile operators will use Wi-Fi to offload mobile traffic, BT essentially will use mobile to augment and “upload” fixed traffic.

But both of those approaches blend “mobile” and “fixed” Internet access. The unknown is whether there could arise a market for Wi-Fi-only devices that take advantage of the growing availability of Wi-Fi, much as Wi-Fi-only tablets get used.

Already, in most developed nations, 80 percent to 95 percent of the time, smart phone users are in zones where Wi-Fi can be the primary Internet connection, when they use the Internet.