o2 Broadband Everywhere

I’ve been thinking what will be o2’s product set now they have bought Be.

• Free Broadband for Life is taken;
• Total Broadband is gone; and
• 3G Broadband looks like being claimed.

The best my admittedly limited marketing braincells could come up with is “o2 broadband everywhere*” where * means subject to HSDPA coverage. The product would basically bundle hardware (WiFi router/hub for the home network, combi-3G/Wifi Card for the laptop) and internet connectivity via the hub t home and the HSDPA network whilst out and about. It would allow lots of play with the fact that oxygen is everywhere and not just constrained to a wire.

A variation of this is to build a UMA server into the router to allow a homezone voice product competing with the BT Fusion product and grabbing minutes off the fixed network.

I’m sure the o2 marketing department are having lots of fun brainstorming; I just think it will be even funnier if the blogosphere got there first. It can’t be that difficult given the size of the community and the limited options facing o2. If everyone posted their ideas and names on their own blogs, I'm sure that the end o2 product launch will have predicted well before the event.

I think that any product will only work if it open-access and thereby it will ultimately kill-off the walled-garden approach of i-mode.