BT drives wireless/wireline integration with One Phone service for SMBs

BT is tapping into the growing bring your own device (BYOD) trend with the introduction of its cloud-based BT One Phone service that allows small to medium business (SMB) customers to access their company's office phone system on a mobile device.

The new service is about helping SMBs be more responsive. Whether someone calls an employee on their landline, extension or mobile number, all calls go to one phone, meaning calls are less likely to get missed.

SMBs can leverage the service across a range of mobile phones by inserting a BT One Phone SIM inside the device. BT customers can access the service using a mix of 4G technology via its MVNO partner EE and unlimited access to BT's 5 million Wi-Fi hotspots.

Through the BT One Phone portal, businesses can control all of their call settings. IT administrators can also add and remove employees as they join or leave, activate or deactivate SIM cards and set and manage call groups themselves, without the need for outside technical support. 

By providing inclusive "on-net" internal calls between users within a business, they can chose an array of company shared bundles or unlimited voice and text tiers, and access to in-depth billing data. And since it's a hosted solution, businesses do not have to make an upfront investment in network infrastructure, pay separate maintenance contracts or make large investments as they grow or add new locations.

What's required for an SMB to get the BT One Phone service is BT has to build a dedicated mobile network in a customer's premises that it says will provide necessary indoor mobile coverage and capacity.

Any phone with a BT One Phone SIM automatically connects to the dedicated mobile network as soon as it's in range. After an employee leaves the office, there's a seamless handover between their dedicated mobile network and the BT Mobile national network. 

To ensure that voice traffic is not compromised by data or Internet traffic, BT One Phone comes with a dedicated data transmission link to manage call traffic back to BT's national network.

For more:
- see the release

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