Neuf Cegetel Group

With ambitions of becoming the largest alternative fixed telecom operator in France, Neuf Cegetel Group is courting new customers by merging mobility with its fixed service offerings. The operator was the first to carry out large-scale trials of a fixed-mobile convergence service, called “BeautifulPhone,” and is now making the service commercially available to its customers, along with a simple and affordable FMC phone.

Introduced in April 2006, Neuf Talk Mobile is a fixed-mobile service offered at no additional charge to all Neuf Cegetel customers of the company’s Neuf Box, which provides a combination of broadband access, VoIP and IPTV services. Using a sophisticated smart phone or PDA, the service allows Neuf Box customers to make calls at the same price as calls from their VoIP service, which includes unlimited calls to landlines in France and to 31 international destinations.

On the heels of the Neuf Talk Mobile announcement, neuf cegetel then launched TWIN™, a GSM/Wi-Fi hybrid telephone that the company says makes its Neuf Talk Mobile service more affordable for mainstream consumers who may not have one of the more expensive smart phones or PDAs. A Wi-Fi button on the TWIN phone automatically connects the phone to the Neuf Box or to any one of 32,000 Neuf Wi-Fi hotspots, allowing subscribers to make the same unlimited calls. Where there is no Wi-Fi coverage, the TWIN operates as a traditional mobile phone, using the company’s GSM network. Because it doesn’t require a separate subscription, the TWIN also means that Neuf Box customers can surf the Internet at broadband speeds of up to 11 Mbps at no extra charge. All calls appear on their Neuf Mobile invoice. Meanwhile, the BeautifulPhone trial continues to test under live conditions new converged functionality that will, over time, be added to the TWIN service offering.