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BT is one of Europe's leading providers of telecommunications services. The 3 principal lines of business are BT Retail, BT Wholesale and BT Global Services. There are a number of other businesses within the group, including BT Exact: a centre of excellence in IT and networking technologies and home to the organisation's R&D activity.
Ryan Jarvis joined BT in September as Chief of Products at BT Mobile, a newly-formed business unit. Prior to joining BT, Ryan was CEO & Founder of Wi-Fi operator Megabeam, which he sold to Swisscom in March this year. Ryan's early career was spent with Ericsson. He holds a law degree from Oxford University and is a qualified barrister.
We met up with Ryan to find out what's been happening within the incumbent recently, their move into mobile services, and his new career challenge.
Ryan, BT, like everyone else has been through huge transition. What's the strategy moving forward?
BT is going to focus on building on its core strengths, with a primary focus on the following 3 new wave areas:
- Broadband
- ICT (managed services)
- Mobility & Convergence
BT Mobile is a new business. Where does it sit, and what is the challenge you face?
BT Mobile sits within BT Retail. My role is to increase BT's market share as a mobile service provider by developing strategic products that build on the strengths of BT.
One of these initiatives is to use BT's fixed network to shake up the mobile market and position BT as a converged service provider to its 19 million customers.
The revenue target is £300 million from mobility activities by the end of 2005.
You mentioned earlier that BT would build on its core strengths moving forward. How does this apply to BT Mobile?
We are going to play to the strengths of BT and the weaknesses of the mobile operators. BT enjoys strong customer relationships at both a residential and corporate level. For example, in the corporate space, BT has a recognised IT expertise that gives BT access at IT Director level. For an IT Director, BT is the logical provider of mobile IT.
Building on the fixed network is also key. BT will lead fixed-mobile by delivering the best of both the fixed and mobile user experience. A mobile IT example of convergence is BT's launch of Mobile Office. BT Mobile Office allows firms to co-ordinate, purchase and manage the full range of remote access options, both fixed and mobile, through a single, low cost system. The ROI is compelling. No longer do firms need to buy varying technologies from different suppliers and manage it themselves, or hire a systems integrator to build a customised system.
How will you address the residential market?
BT Mobile Home Plan is our 1st step back into the mobile mass market, and will build on our existing landline relationships with consumers to sell mobile. BT has a unique relationship with families and we're building on our heritage here to create products and services that will increase their loyalty. Uniquely, we offer our customers deals which recognise they are part of a family unit, and not just individuals. BT Mobile Home Plan is a serious value statement for us. We offer 500 sub 2-minute calls to home from a family's mobiles free each month. Linking discounted mobile calls to the fixed-line phone is another step forward in convergence, and we're backing it with a £5.5 million TV ad campaign.
Deloitte & Touche analysis indicates BT Mobile Home Plan is cheaper for families than any pre-pay package from Virgin, Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2 for most usage profiles.
Who are you partnering with to deliver these services?
BT Mobile's consumer offerings are delivered on T-Mobile's network and our business services are delivered on O2's network. BT Mobile Home Plan is available at major high street retailers including Carphone Warehouse, Comet, The Link and Phones 4U.
How does this fit in with BT's overall corporate strategy?
The linking of mobile and fixed line telephony is integral to BT's aim of converged communications. We want to provide simple and complete communications for all customers and although we need a mobile service provider business to achieve our goal of convergence, we don't need to own a mobile network. Convergence will turn fixed-mobile substitution into mobile-fixed substitution.
What's coming downstream next year?
Next year will see more convergence products. Mobile functionality will be built into home phones with the launch of BT Text, which allows SMS messages to be sent to and from the landline. The launch of Bluephone will allow customers to use their mobiles in the office or in the home to have cheaper fixed-line prices and superior fixed-line voice signal. 2004 will also see the enhancement of our family offering with the introduction of BT Mobile World, a simple-to-use mobile infotainment service offering games and ringtones.
To find out more about BT Mobile visit www.bt.com/mobile. Ryan can be contacted at ryan.jarvis@bt.com.
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