BT unveils Bluephone - finally

BT has finally cut the ribbon on its much-hyped BluePhone - the mobile that thinks it's a landline phone. The telco's creative boutique has also been hard at work and renamed it BT Fusion. Or should that be BT Confusion?

When in range of a user's broadband connection (it has to be a BT broadband connection btw), BT Confusion, sorry Fusion, acts like a regular fixed line phone with an off-peak call to a BT landline costs 5.5p an hour or 3p a minute for peak times.

Move outside your home or office and BT Confusion becomes a mobile phone with calls charged at mobile tariff rates.

Anyone calling a BT Fusion phone will be charged at mobile rates.

The service is due to be kicked off with 400 "early adopters" during the summer before getting the full commercial treatment in September.

For now, there are two packages on offer - BT Fusion 100, which includes 100 minutes of call time for £9.99 a month. BT Fusion 200 costs £14.99 a month. At the moment, these are just "launch prices" so anything could happen come September.

Said BT Retail boss Ian Livingston: "For the first time customers will be able to get the best of both worlds in one service - combining the convenience and features of a mobile with fixed line prices and quality.

"We know that many of our customers enjoy the convenience of their mobile phones when they're out and about - but switch to using a landline phone when they arrive back home to save money or because they have little or no mobile coverage." ®

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