Leader: Fear BT

BT's Bluephone was launched yesterday, under the brand name Fusion - a landline/mobile combination that will use GSM when one is out and about, and broadband when at home. Is this the start of the IP revolution? And should the likes of Skype and Vonage be quaking as the behemoth that is BT wades into their market?

On the pricing front, it seems the IP players win hands down. For consumers looking at VoIP who have no relatives living abroad, the per-month fee or free PC-to-PC calls offered by Vonage and Skype are likely to be cheaper and less complex to work out.

BT isn't being generous with their free minutes bundles and those using the VoIP service to call other mobiles will end up paying mobile-to-mobile rates. Unless you're one of those dwindling number of people who purely call landline to landline, the service promises one-handset convenience - but not much else.

So, in some ways, Niklas Zennström et al shouldn't need to think twice about the new boy in the field.

But don't be placing your bets so soon: BT could still come out of this the winner. The incumbent may be late to the party, it might not have the best offering yet but BT has one key thing that Vonage and the rest don't - a huge existing customer base to market it to.

BT said yesterday it will be pushing the service to its 1.5 million-plus residential customers and is fairly likely to do the same with its wholesale customers in time. Meanwhile the vast majority of those people don't know their Skype from their elbow.

BT has slapped its brand - a familiar if not loved brand - all over VoIP. For the non-techie, it's all a bit advanced - 'just imagine, we can make telephone calls over the internet!' - and therefore a little scary. Going with a telecoms stalwart like BT is one way to chase those technology demons away.

And BT is playing up to that. While Skype's website sells itself as "internet telephony", BT is couching the consumer in a big fluffy world of friendly terms. Fusion isn't VoIP, it's an "intelligent mobile service". That's not a wireless router in your living room, no - it's a "home hub".

So, once again, BT sweeps all before it and Skype is doomed? Nope.

VoIP may be odd to most people now but it's just a matter of a few short years before it will be the norm and your granny will be doing price comparisons on her IP service provider. And if BT doesn't rethink its pricing strategy, those self-same grannies will happily go off to Skype or whoever is cheapest.