British Telecom (BT), will introduce a device and service that it hopes will bridge the gap between fixed and mobile services. The new service is initially being trialled with 400 users and will be rolled out commercially in September. BT Fusion is the culmination of years of technical development and market research that was previously known as Project Bluephone. The new wireless handsets will connect to BT�s traditional fixed line network when users are in their homes but will automatically log on to a mobile network when subscribers leave the home environment. BT moved out of mobile telephony in 2001 when it spun off what used to be called mmO2 into a separate, independent business. Significantly, for the telco�s return to the mobile arena, it is partnering with Vodafone rather than with its offspring, O2. BT hopes the service will create �1 billion of additional revenue. It's part of the carrier�s long-term strategy to stem the loss of fixed line customers that are churning away in increasing numbers, and opting for mobile connectivity instead.
The prevailing narrative around artificial intelligence (AI) has been one of relentless scale. Bigger models, bigger clusters, bigger budgets. The assumption, largely unchallenged until recently, was that raw parameter count translated directly into competitive advantage. New research from Omdia suggests it's time to retire that assumption. According to the latest market study by Omdia, parameter growth in frontier AI models has slowed to around 5 percent annually since 2021, a stark contrast to the more than hundredfold expansion seen between 2019 and 2021. Enterprise AI Market Development For executives who have been making infrastructure and investment decisions based on the assumption that AI would keep demanding ever-larger, ever-more-expensive hardware, this finding deserves serious attention. The race to the top of the model size leaderboard has, at least for now, plateaued. Crucially, Omdia's analysts are not reading this as an AI winter. Alexander Harrowell, senior pri...