Swimming against the current
At a time when PC and consumer electronics companies are rushing to get involved in the mobile communications market, it seems rather counter intuitive to see a mobile operator move into landlines, but that's exactly what O2 is doing in the UK.
Today it announced a landline phone service for its broadband customers that will become available in March. While landlines aren't exactly a growth market these days, O2 probably hopes it will serve as the icing on the cake to entice broadband customers away from the market leaders like BT, Sky and TalkTalk.
"This is the most important launch for us in the home space since we entered the broadband market and is part of our strategy to evolve beyond mobile to a leading connectivity brand ," said Sally Cowdry, UK marketing director at O2.
Here's a table showing the two packages and what they cost - which is essentially a surcharge on top of the O2 broadband price. While O2 is obviously best known for its mobile phone network, there has been no talk yet of a triple-play offering, bundling the various services together. Surely it's just a matter of time.
