Survey Finds UK Consumer BT Mobile Service May Face Uphill Battle

The latest ISPreview.co.uk survey has found that BT’s forthcoming move to re-enter the United Kingdom’s already stagnated mobile communications market with the launch of a new service for domestic consumers, which might conceivably be followed by a similar proposition from Sky Broadband, could prove attractive to some but it won’t be an easy sell.

Among other things the reader survey found that just 8.1% of respondents currently take both their mobile and fixed line home broadband service from the same provider and, when asked whether an ISP would be more attractive if it could also offer a competitive mobile service alongside home broadband, some 25% answered “Yes” and 31% responded with a “Maybe”, yet 45% said “No”.

Is your mobile phone service with the same provider as your fixed home broadband?
No – 88.5%
Yes – 8.1%
I do not use a mobile – 3.2%

Would you consider an ISP to be more attractive if it could offer a competitive mobile service alongside home broadband?
No – 44.6%
Maybe – 30.6%
Yes – 24.7%

Are you interested in the possibility of Sky and BT adding a consumer mobile product to complement their broadband, phone and TV services?
No – 58.2%
Maybe – 25.1%
Yes – 16.5%

BT will need to tread carefully. Both O2 and Vodafone have previously tried and failed to complement their primary mobile services by adding a home broadband product, which suggests that BT could be at risk making a similar mistake by attempting to do it the other way around.

On the other hand both Virgin Media and TalkTalk have been able to make a modest success out of offering mobile services alongside their home broadband products, albeit perhaps arguably more as a tool for reducing customer churn. By contrast major mobile operators like Three UK, Vodafone and O2, with the noted exception of EE, do not have their own home broadband product.

BT will need to learn the lessons of Vodafone and O2’s prior failures. In particular both operators, in attempting to break into the home broadband market, ended up either neglecting the service after the first few years or altering the product too far away from what originally made it attractive. Crucially there is interest in the market, but converting that into customers is never an easy task. BT’s service is expected to launch around Q2 2015.

Meanwhile this month’s new survey asks whether your ISP advertises its broadband upload speeds and how much you know about upload performance in general? Vote Here.