BT Bluephone
Sharing cellphone and internet connections

April 2005

The concept of BT Bluephone, developed at BT's development labs at Adastral park (formerly Martelsham), is that a single phone can be used to connect to cellular networks and also to connect over the internet at home.

It is understood that this product works, and will be launched in teh very near future, but does not perform well enough for larger scale use - the market the product is targeted at. The main problem, aparently, is that not enough of them can operate in one building.

It will be usable at home for those who can configure their internet connection to support the phone, but the total number which can be connected on one network is too low for larger office use.

Bluephone uses Bluetooth technology and a report in ZDNet has suggested that its successor will have Wi-Fi instead, with trials due to start any day.