At the WiFi / Cellular conference I chaired in Dallas a week or so ago, I was rather surprised that one of the Korean presenters was interrogated about Bluetooth-based FMC. Not Bluetooth UMA as per BT Fusion, but the even earlier dual-mode variant called "cordless telephony profile" CTP, which was originally launched by Korea Telecom, eventually signing up 100k or so subscribers before disappearing quietly.
CTP was one of those good ideas that appeared a bit too early, suffering from a lack of interest in deploying Bluetooth access points, and an equal lack of interest by operators in phones which had a potentially-threatening Bluetooth profile which could cannibalise minutes.
So I was a bit surprised to find out (belatedly) that CTP has actually been granted a new lease of life in Brazil. Now, I can't really see it making a comeback on a much broader stage, but it just goes to show that there's always more ways to create a service than you might think.....
Dean Bubley's Disruptive Wireless: Thought-leading wireless industry analysis
I want this in my cell phone so I can use it as a handset in Skype, rather than always scrabbling around looking to plug a headset in just as a call arrives.
ReplyDeleteSkype-ready BT CTP USB dongle is already released by some company in South Korea, it's called imFONE...
ReplyDeleteI want this in my cell phone too so i can make a connection to Skype (or any Voip) on my PC w/ bt dongle. Is it possible to develop a J2ME application that can run on a java enabled cell phone that supports the bluetooth CTP profile? Or are the bletooth chips/phone hardware totally incapable of this software only upgrade?
ReplyDeleteI saw the imFone product and they state there are only three cell phone models available that support Bluetooth CTP.