BT Introduces the One Phone Office and Professional

BT is making its return to the mobile space, with the launch of BT One Phone. This is a Unified Communications offering providing mobile and fixed line communications to a single mobile device from the cloud.

Two versions of BT’s new product are available, the One Phone Office and One Phone Professional. The main difference lies in the private mobile network in One Phone Office, which allows the phone to work when roaming to small indoor 3G cells, reducing the risk of dropped calls indoors. BT One Phone redirects and routes calls to a single smartphone, thus helping avoid missed calls. If an employee leave the office, or a private network fails, BT’s Mobile Virtual Network Operator takes over.

In addition, One Phone has built-in presence, so receptionists and users can see who is online and redirect calls as needed. It is offered through the cloud, and users can also download a smartphone application that allows them to set their status and check any messages left for them.

However, there is cause to be skeptical at BT’s efforts. “Up to this point, every attempt at delivering a compelling mobile UC capability has been a complete failure,” states Michael Finneran, UC Expert at UCStrategies. “The only mobile feature that has had any appeal is simultaneous ring, and that’s essentially ‘call forwarding.’ “ Finneran notes that like all other mobile UC solutions available, it’s unlikely to succeed if it requires the customer to use a separate client and not the phone’s native interface.

Still, BT is aiming to use One Phone Professional as a stepping-stone to bring its customers to a fuller service. The service targets SMBs with anywhere from 20 to 250 employees. As it is cloud-based, there’s no need to upgrade or maintain the system, although installation will take 8 weeks for One Phone Professional, and 12 for One Phone Office. The prices have yet to be revealed.

For more information, visit www.bt.com.