A conversation with Rakesh Mahajan, Global Director of Mobility, British Telecom Global Services
A couple of weeks ago in London I met Rakesh Mahajan, a young and brilliant Indian executive who has a very important role at British Telecom. After he spoke to a group of international journalists from all over Europe, Brazil and, of course,
Mexico (and that’s me), I had the opportunity to sat down with him and have a chat. The thing is that in Mexico users of mobile phones, and particularly business users, won’t be able to realize the benefits of fix and mobile convergence (FMC) in their cellular devices for yet some time. And that’s because the incumbent carrier in Mexico won’t allow the use of voice over Wi-Fi networks. The reason is quite clear, as Mahajan told me: wherever in the world where there is an incumbent telephone provider who has both cellular and fix it’s not going to happen.British Telecom (BT) was able to launch its Corporate Fusion service (for which it choose the new Nokia E51as the smartphone of choice) because BT is not anymore into de cellular business, so there is no “cannibalization” or –as regulators might be concerned about–, a cross “subsidizing”.“You have to look at the local regulations, to see if there are no subsidies to fix lines, or voice over Wi-Fi. The regulator bodies work mostly with the incumbent operator. So there is work to do evangelizing the regulator over the benefits for businesses and customers. Why is it that you can use the wireless LAN for data and not for voice?”, asked Mahajan.
This is how it works
According to Frank Bulk, who is a contributing editor to Network Computing Magazine covering wireless and mobile technologies (nwc.com/go/blog_bt-fmc), here is how BT Corporate Fusion works:
“There’s more to BT Corporate Fusion than ‘minute stealing’ from the wireless and long-distance carriers. Both of these services provide one-number access to people, whether they are in the office or out on the road, single voicemail and handover between GSM and Wi-Fi networks. Basic integration into the PBX includes hold, call forwarding and transfer as well as group pick-up, call blocking/un-blocking and recording.” Mahajan’s choice of the Nokia E51 was made on the handset qualities: a stylish stainless steel design with a large display and QWERTY keyboard. Smartphones like these are conducive to accessing corporate directories, interfacing with PBX functions and accessing corporate e-mail as well as any other mobile applications a company may provide its employees. Partnerships between Nokia, Cisco and Avaya concerning FMC, made it the final choice as the dual-mode handset.
It’s not a matter of cost
Businesses have spent a lot of money deploying intelligence in their facilities. There are servers with PBX functionality –with call routing to the cellular phone or the assistant–, and that is a cost already made. But if you could add the mobile phone as your fix phone, that translates into more productivity. The FMC lets you access the company directory and reach people wherever they are. And you can add other business applications going forward. On the consumer side, there are already a couple of offerings in the United States where users pay a fix flat fee and get free voice calls over Wi-fi at home. Why not at your office? How much you are going to save as a business user it’s not quite clear. But just consider the cost of not getting an important call or being unable to transfer a customer to the right people or get the information whenever or wherever you need it in order to satisfy his needs. In fact, as Mahajan recognized, two thirds of business users surveyed don’t have a mobility strategy in place. And there is no one they can call. There are no professional services in one place, so people come to BT for answers, as Mahajan said, to implement mobility solutions. “The mobility industry changes very fast, not as the fix one, and that makes it very complex. We want to help them understand the trends and what is possible with the right tools available right now.”
As Frank Bulk said, “look at what is happening on the other side of the pond. With enterprise FMC service starting to materialize, the much-talked about days of singe-number, single-voicemail access may actually become a reality”.
Monicami :: Oct.04.2007 ::
My digital life ::
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2007, and a 360-degree videoconferencing system called Roundtable. Dozens of partners, including SAP, introduced products and services that tie in. Under a partnership revealed earlier this year, Microsoft also is putting its software in Nortel Networks’ voice-over-IP systems; they report 300 joint wins.