Wi-Fi leader converges on one handset

Ryan Jarvis says a new "converged handset" is a big hit in Britain. Picture / Kenny Rodger

Early this decade Ryan Jarvis built a Wi-Fi hotspot empire across Europe at a time when the now-ubiquitous technology was unknown and its potential unrecognised.

The Oxford-educated lawyer and one-time head of sales, strategy and legal for a division of Ericsson was co-founder of pioneering Wi-Fi operator Megabeam.

He went on to sell the visionary business to Swisscom.

"When I started Megabeam, Wi-Fi was like black magic. It was very rarely understood," Jarvis says.

"That allowed us to go and acquire real estate and gain a market advantage before the incumbents [Europe's telecommunication companies] really had a look at it. When we sold [the business] we had acquired such strong real estate across Europe, we had deals with over 1000 four and five-star hotels and 25 airports.

"We were the only pan-European network and we controlled such premier real estate that we'd really locked anyone else out from going pan-Euro."
Jarvis' next move was to British Telecom where today he oversees the company's wireless broadband business.

"I like to go into markets when they're bleeding edge and when the technology is immature and the standards are uncertain."

Going in early provides an opportunity to "create a market", he says.

"That's what I did for Megabeam and now what I'm planning to do with BT for wireless broadband."

Jarvis was in Auckland last week to chair a meeting of the Fixed-Mobile Convergence Alliance, a BT-led industry initiative which has 24 telco firm members from around the world, including Telecom New Zealand.

The alliance's members are mainly fixed-line network operators and collectively they have more than 800 million subscribers.

They meet regularly to discuss initiatives around merging fixed and mobile services to give customers products such as a single handset which acts as both a home phone and a mobile.

With his BT hat on, Jarvis is chief cheerleader for the company's innovation in this area: the BT Fusion handset which gives customers landline-priced calls when they're within range of their home broadband connection and switches to the mobile network when they're out.

Jarvis says the service offers convenience and cost savings to customers.

They only need one phone, one number and one address book and don't get stung for cellular call costs while at home.

BT also saves money by routing a significant number of calls through its broadband network rather than via its mobile partner, Vodafone.

Jarvis says the converged handset has been a big hit - BT is shipping 2500 a week to customers.

He predicts the technology will take off around the world this year as other operators pick up on the convergence theme as a way to make the most economic use of Wi-Fi, WiMax and cellular networks.

"There isn't a silver bullet technology but combining them all is the silver bullet," Jarvis says.

Telecom New Zealand is an active member of the Fixed-Mobile Convergence Alliance and has been talking up the potential of convergence technology as one of its strategies.

Early last week Jarvis predicted the local telco would probably begin dabbling with "commercial convergence" - pricing plans aimed at making fixed-to-mobile calls more attractive.

"That would allow it to test the market to see where the receptiveness is and then back it up with convergence handsets of a multi-mode nature."

He must have been well informed: Two days later the company announced a $10 monthly plan allowing unlimited calls between one Telecom landline number and one Telecom mobile.

RYAN JARVIS

* Who: Chief of wireless broadband, BT.

* Favourite gadget: Sony PSP. "It's amazing when you sit on an aircraft how many of them are in the hands of business people, who should know better."

* Next big thing: Ubiquitous wireless broadband - achieved through a combination of Wi-Fi, WiMax and cellular networks.

* Alternative career: "It's more my aspiration after telecoms: to run a nature reserve, to re-introduce animals to places where they've become extinct - probably in Eastern Europe."

* Spare time: Walking in the mountains, reading military history.

* Favourite sci-fi movie: Terminator.