BT Refreshes UK Consumer Brands and Relaunches BT Mobile Service
Broadband and telecoms giant BT Group has this afternoon confirmed last week’s leak (here) by announcing somewhat of a UK consumer brand resuscitation for BT and a refresh for their other consumer divisions (EE and Plusnet). The move will, among other things, revive their BT Mobile brand for basic 30 day rolling SIM Only contracts and introduces free security upgrades for home users.
The change marks a shift away from the strategy adopted in 2022 (here), which sought simplification (i.e. no more having “two of everything“) by turning EE into the group’s “flagship brand” for most consumer customers, while BT would become the main brand for their Enterprise and Global units, and Plusnet would continue to “serve customers with basic no-frills broadband and landline” (although they don’t offer phone services on FTTP).
Since then we’ve seen lots of changes to help facilitate the aforementioned strategy (e.g. product withdrawals and service migrations). But this has, over the past four years, caused plenty of customer confusion and arguably also eroded the standing of BT’s core brand, which was once synonymous with home broadband and phone services. More to the point, it’s unclear whether the group has seen much of a positive return from that strategy.
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However, the first signs of a change came early in 2025, after it was reported that the operator’s latest CEO, Allison Kirkby, had “shelved” that strategy to avoid alienating older customers and would also step up its investment in Plusnet (here). But quite what this would mean in practice remained unclear, until today.
What’s changing at BT?
According to the group’s announcement, BT’s refreshed “multi-brand strategy” will still see BT, EE and Plusnet targeting different parts of the market – supported by a major “Behind Brilliant Things” marketing campaign that’s understood to be costing tens of millions of pounds (beginning 8th May across TV, outdoor, press and digital).
BT has also revealed that it will be the official UK telecoms partner for the UEFA Euro 28 football championship, which is to be hosted by Britain and Ireland. On top of that, the provider plans to launch a new range of “cyber threat protection” products for ALL their home broadband customers (they’ll get this for free).
In addition, BT confirmed the launch of their new Smart Hub 3 router, which we’ve already covered last month (here) and in fact that story also mentioned the provider’s new Hub Threat Protect feature + “redesigned” MyBT App. Both of which formed a small part of today’s announcement.
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BT Business is also launching “significant upgrades” to its offering for small and medium businesses, including connectivity solutions and free advice for businesses to help them respond to changing risks in a digital environment.
However, the headline change involves the revival of their BT Mobile brand and service, which confirms what we said last week. BT Mobile will start by offering basic 30-day rolling SIM Only contracts with capped data allowances (if you want handset bundles or unlimited data, then that’s still EE’s domain), and these will only be available to BT’s Consumer broadband customers.
Allison Kirkby, CEO of BT Group, said:
“UEFA EURO 2028 is a perfect example of a brilliant moment that BT sits behind. It will be an event of national significance that will connect the UK and a global community of fans, leveraging the unique strength of BT’s networks and technologies to deliver unforgettable experiences for fans, customers and the country.”
For 180 years, BT has played a critical role – trusted to connect people, businesses and communities. Having invested heavily into our networks in recent years, this is now the moment to invest even further in our brands, products and services, so that more of our customers and more of the country can experience and benefit from being connected by BT.”
The move could perhaps be seen by some as a de-prioritising the EE brand for consumers, although BT clearly views each of their brands as having a “distinct identity” for targeting different segments of the market. If you want cheap and basic, go with Plusnet, if you want the latest and fastest broadband or mobile tech, pick EE, and for everybody else there’s BT. At least that’s what it sounds like.
Inside the walls of BT this probably makes perfect sense, and we’d generally agree that sidelining the BT brand for consumers was the wrong move a few years ago. On the other hand, the decision to at least partly reverse that will undoubtably cause some fresh consumer confusion, particularly with the idea of bringing BT Mobile back from the grave. A marketing campaign alone may not be enough to fix that one.
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The move could also be seen as a response to how competitive the UK’s mobile market has become in recent years. Virtual operators seem to have been springing up all over the place, often outpacing their parents, while pure eSIM providers have recently added yet another new dynamic to the market. Much will thus depend upon how attractive BT Mobile can make their new plans, otherwise there’s a risk of them falling into obscurity.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Thanks for the summary, it means I can sleep through the happy-clappy corpro-bollox video this afternoon.
Allera’s mission to destroy the BT brand is finally over. I’m looking forward to the ceremonial disposal of my BT Group lanyard…..
I always thought it was a strange decision to relegate the BT brand to a business unit only. The BT brand is synonymous in the public psyche with broadband and landlines. The EE brand, less so (to be honest, I didn’t even know EE did broadband and landlines until a few years ago). People just know EE as the mobile network, and now they sell games consoles and all sorts of other tech products? It’s like they’re trying to take on Currys or something, it’s very strange.
Plusnet should probably introduce optional landlines on their FTTP network. Very odd decision not to offer that, given their customer base.
@Retro – Indeed. The lack of a VoIP option on Plusnet is what has just cost them the custom of my parents. Perhaps a strategic hope of moving them onto EE for broadband+VoIP for increased margin in the future at contract renewal? But I took the opportunity to move them (as their I.T. support department) to an altnet over CityFibre and port the number to a separate provider. It’ll save a fair few quid each month, but they wouldn’t have been able to do it themselves. [Mobile coverage in their village is basically non-existent for all networks, so that option was out for phone use.]
Hhmmmm ? Were does EE’s kit come from . . . who is the No2 shareholder by size in BT Group ? Its ol’Orangina’s economics at play.
“Much will thus depend upon how attractive BT Mobile can make their new plans”. Currently I’m paying £5 a month for 5GB of data with unlimited texts & calls with Lebara and so far no price rises in the 18 months I’ve been with them so that’s the sort of deal they are going to need to match if they want to play in this hypercompetitive space.
Trouble is even if BT mobile did say 5gb for £5 they would come with £1.50 or so annual price increase. I currently have 10gb for £5.90 with Lebara and not had a price increase in the 4 years I have been with them so BT are going to struggle to get people’s like me back here!
You mean £2.50 increase.
I’m sure you mean Smart Hub 3, the Home Hub 3 is a bit long in the tooth to be called new 😉
You are correct 🙂
Click on BT Mobile, and it takes you to EE..
Only people in BT think BT is a better mobile brand than EE.
I get the sense this is more about BT wanting a new flanker brand than it is because of a belief within BT that BT is a better mobile brand than EE.
I would get rid of the Plusnet brand (and its restrictions)
Leaving
* BT Business (including anything special like alarm lines)
* EE (premium brand for broadband and mobile, separate website, Mesh, 4G/5G backup, 4G/5G home brandband without FTTP/FTTC options). FTTP (and 4G/5G) only, no new FTTC in this brand, prioritise FTTC elimination in this tier
* BT (broadband/landline and midtier mobile SIM only, maybe reselling safety pendant solutions, and bundled DECT landline phone handsets, and Mesh rental. Maybe reselling video doorbels and Internet security cameras). This is the “legacy” brand with name recognition for older people, and would also be the brand that offers “pre-digital voice” transitional services (SOTAP for Analogue) with encouragments to move “down” to BT Basics on FTTC or FTTP.
* BT Basics (sub-brand that sells Broadband and Landline including VoIP, Low end mobile, social tariffs, on the main BT website). Plusnet customers migrate to BT Basics. FTTC continues for longer in this tier (at some point, if your location can only offer FTTC then you can only be Basics)
And Openreach.
All the BT brands to sell the same in-home eqipment for all service tiers (although you can request EE to supply newest top end gear if needed to get the premium service), with a “no truck roll/seamless switch” policy when switching between brands, although some EE upgrades would need in-home equipment replacement.
You want to get rid of Plusnet; the ISP with the lowest level of complaints of any major ISP?
BT Executive Complaints . . soon to be EE Super Executive Complaints, will be seeking the demise of Plusnet . . . its their S.O.S message
Rebrand plusnet, could still be the same team behind the scenes with same quality, just simplifying the brand architecture into one overall name
It would be good if Plusnet would start offering business broadband again, I’m currently with IdNet who are fine but it would be good to have some choice at a similar price point.
How about BT reducing their prices and not ripping people off as usual, everyones considering or moving to altnets, Bt is a dinosaur now!!!
I genuinely think that this is a huge mistake for BT. While I agree the decision to focus on EE as the lead Brand was a risk. The strategy was solid as it would have got a lot of consumer focus on a single brand and save a lot of money for BT when it comes to product, IT and marketing.
This U turn is clearly a panic move by BT Group and Consumer CEOs as they don’t know how to stem their customer losses. So their big bold plan is to renew the BT Brands again! As mentioned in the article it will cause nothing but confusion for consumers. Their marketing campaign doesn’t even focus on selling product it is focused on trying to tell the internal story of BT and all the work they do in the background which customers don’t see. Honestly what is the point of that?
Consumers want one simple thing, a reliable service which caters for their needs and importantly provides the most competitive price.
BT lost something like 800k customers last year and more in the years prior. This was driven by mostly forced migration to EE.
If BT really wanted to stop customer losses they should have fixed the migration plan by introducing reps who can visit your home for free to get you familiar with BT and EE brand and build the trust with older customers who aren’t familiar with EE. This would have made the experience much better.
This new marketing campaign is driven by bloody D&I agenda. They ask employees last year what they think is wrong with the business and everyone tells them it is hard to get things done and that they don’t feel understood or seen by customers. So this is BT D&I CEOs trying to make everyone be included, but in Reality people just want the IT estate to better connected and work when they need it to.
The money they’re sinking into this, when the customer base doesn’t grow the share price will crap itself bloody sick to death of these execs coming in with dumb ideas which contradict the previous decisions proving to the market that the company cannot maintain a solid long term strategy.
I was with BT for years. FTTP+mobile package. I was looking for a new flat so I wasn’t renewing my contract. When I moved there was a Hyperoptic broadband in the new flat. I called BT to cancel my broadband and asked to keep my mobile. They told me I had to migrate to EE and they offered me upgrade to unlimited data. I agreed, but they forgot to tell me it would be capped at 10Mbps and without EU roaming. Fortunately I didn’t sign a contract so I switched to ID mobile. I must say EE network was faster (while still on BT without ridiculous 10Mbps cap) then Three, but I’m happy with the change.
@PK Not sure about that.
BT share rose 6.5% today on JP Morgan predictions of customer losses to altnets reducing and free cash flow and dividends increasing.
BT could simply retire Plusnet and EE brands and rebrand and consolidate all their products under BT branding.
Streamlining BT products and services to offer the same features across all BT tiers for each product but with difference in speed and capacity for each pricing tier whilst BT reduces their pricing could reduce the numbers of customers leaving BT.
Rationalising brands could also allow BT to freeze annual prices to once every two years.
Plusnet targets a different audience to BT & EE. If they try to merge it they stand a good chance of losing those customers to rival budget ISPs like Vodafone. I was looking to leave BT last year as the price I was paying had got ridiculous and the choice was between Vodafone and Plusnet ultimately choosing Plusnet. If Plusnet hadn’t been there they would have lost me as a customer altogether.
I’m so glad I’m with Community Fibre with a VoIP landline @ £23/month. All this BT/EE whoosh over my head.
The whoosh over your head will be Ms Kirby departing in a jet plane back to Sweden once the Mr Goppal and DT get a grip.
Maybe, hopefully, sometime in the near future the anti-competitive constraints on BT will be removed and then the public can determine if the remains of once was a large communications company is worth while using or saving. Having just had the phone only line at the parents converted to VOIP at BT’s behest the following Bill was so confusing (it looked like there was something like a 250% price increase) I was ready to cancel and drop to another provider.
Price increases will be the stand-out feature of any Migration of BT Customers To EE.
I am told that’s the near term policy, ditch the BT brand and its associated technology move the well-heeled customers to EE using exclusive Deutsche Telecom technology (They are no 2 shareholder, by size in BT Group) and increase Average Per Capita Revenue, and they won’t be using special Harry Potter Magic to do so.
Firms have brand refreshes all the time. I can see why they promote EE as a growing number of people have never had a landline and are more familiar with the mobile arm.
I have recently moved to EE from Smarty as the Three coverage has deteriorated markedly around my area since the 3g switch off. EE were offering a competitive deal for broadband customers so maybe they are starting to have a crack at the low cost providers.
Either way BT Group shares are at a seven year high at the moment so there is clearly some belief in the company amongst investors.
@Mark Jackson: You say “Much will thus depend upon how attractive BT Mobile can make their new plans, otherwise there’s a risk of them falling into obscurity.” but I don’t see it this way. BT Mobile is just a SIM-only, 30-day rolling contract with a 30 Mbps cap, deliberately designed for loyal, older BT broadband customers. And 30 Mbps is more than enough as these low-usage users have Wi-Fi at home for their WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger calls. As a simple, frictionless way to help keep these customers without cannibalising EE, I think BT has got it right.
You’re forgetting that BT had those sorts of plans before, and then they scrapped the service and tried to push many over to EE. The opportunity to grow that base has since migrated or diminished, making it much harder to re-enter.
According to BT’s results in Sept,
“Consumer customer bases grew for a third consecutive quarter in broadband and a second consecutive quarter in postpaid mobile, with growth also in TV”
“Consumer fixed and mobile convergence increased to 25.9% from 23.1% this time last year”
So it looks to me that the group are refreshing deals, as all players do from time to time, rather than “re-entering” the market.
Now they are scrapping the barrel by applying underhand suasion techniques on OAPs to leave BT for other sunlite uplands.
What BT is doing is trying to remedy a problem of its own making, i.e. losing some engagement with its loyal broadband customers when it stopped taking new sign-ups for BT Mobile in October 2023 and pushing everything towards EE. There must be a greater chance of churn, so by bringing back BT Mobile at very low cost, BT is saying: ‘We haven’t forgotten you guys, please sign up with your familiar provider.’
BT/EE’ shareholder, which include the elite’s pension and investment funds, have set themselves a policy of ARPCU (Average Revenue Per Capita Uplift) – i.e. fewer customers paying more. Their income stream needs come first, customers last.
On the residential side, it would appear, that in line with the policy, they’re only migrating “High-roller” customers to EE.
For basic users, like me, they are definitely giving us the covert, under-the-radar, “Elbow”, utilising every underhand, unattributable and duplicitous way they can.
On 1st April BT sent me, unsolicited and unrequested, a replacement BT Smart Hub 2.
It turned out to be improperly re-furbished and still displayed the list of previous users DECT and MESH equipmenmt. When connected to the internet, this equipment list, far from going away, propagated to the remote BT ACS Provisioning server and contaminated my account profile, with the effect that it cut-off DV service (Which had only been in place a year). And when I connected my original ‘Clean’ BT Smart Hub 2 (Which had been used without issues for 6 years), the ACS server downloaded the contaminated data in the ACS profile and contaminated that hub with “Ghost” values.
A complaint to the CEO yielded only further sabotage . on 16th April I suddenly lost access to my BT On-line account.So a subsequent missive has gone to OFCOM (Described by one commentator as the traffic warden of telecomms and definitely not a regulator)
And the so-called Executive Complaints section where I was referred, who are economic with the actualite with their heads-off, operate to such a tightly scripted e-mail format that I was compelled to ask my correspondent whether he was a ‘Bot’. And, of course the script has one end objective – ridding themselves of customers who can’y yield the appropriate profit level necessary to fund shareholder income streams and dumping the regulatory burden of DV.
Currently I have been told by BT that the have no intention of fixing the corrupted hubs, that my profile on ACS server isn’t corrupted and that the restitution of my on-line BT account could take 12 months. They advise me that, without my consent, they have credited my BT account with the 12 month cost of paper billing. Clearly, a “Piss-off, we don’t want your “Low-roller” custom any more”
The ACS profile problem could be easily fixed by raising a Tier 2 action on the ACS and DV provisioning teams (Apparently a fully pure DV provisioning is a pre-requisite to getting DECT and MESH provisioning right) and similarly with the linking of the BT-Online account. And the hub contamination can be fixed by BT’s contractor performing a deep level wipe of the NVRRAM or scrapping them.But they’re not going to do any of this if the intention is to ditch the BT brand under the influence of Mr Goppal and DT . . the major shareholders.
Microsoft Co-Pilot AI advises that if I “Linger longer” on BT then the next thing they’re likely to chop is DV.
Luckily I’ve already got an operational 4G modem, the ISP service for which seems recently to have been uprated and comparable, on occasions, with my FTTC speed and a 4/5G mobile.They can sit on that for leverage.
Trouble is I can remember the time when telephones were with the GPO and considered to be a major benefit to the ordinary consumer and not the subject of international financial wheeler dealing for the exclusive benefit of the elite classes.
You have got to diss BT for the total lack of respect to a customer of 41 years. Just flicked-off like a nose bogey. Classic British Establishment.
Jannis was right . . . .Techno Feudalism is here . . . and flourishing in BT.
BT mobile has never gone away. I was a trialist as an employee and signed up when it was launched to the general public. I left Openreach 3 years ago and I’m still on it. I’ve been offered “deals” to switch to EE mobile but all the packages are way more expensive than what I currently pay.
Who remembers G.P.O telephones . . engineer attended once, installed an electro-mechanical handset and it worked without change, excessive maintenance or the involvement of international financial instiutions for years on end. Bliss, compared with the here today, gone tomorrow technological and corporate tail wagging consumer dog hell of today.
Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.
Only the telco brigade could make such a pig’s breakfast of fibre broadband introduction and migration of services . . . .”May be the TV advert strap line should be “Its not for you “
Forget BT Mobile, go full retro and bring back Cellnet (without the BT prefix). It was the best name for a mobile cellular network.
I’m sure O2 have no plans to resurrect the name.
I hate to think what will happen to the people on the “Social Tariff” . . . I wonder how many there are ?