UK ISP BT Complements SIM-Only Mobile with New Smartphone Plans

BT has today launched a new range of BTMobile tariffs with bundled Smartphones, which are designed to complement their existing 4G SIM-Only tariffs and also include the same £5 discount for existing broadband users, as well as unlimited access to their WiFi hotspots and free BTSport Lite TV.

The first SIM-Only deals were launched over a year ago via BT’s Mobile MVNO deal with EE, although since then the operator has finalised a huge £12.5bn deal to merge EE into their business and today we’re starting to see some of the initial fruits from that agreement.

Just to recap, here are the SIM-Only tariffs that people can already take on a 12 month contract term (add £5 per month if you don’t take BT Broadband).

BT Mobile 500MB Plan
500MB Data
200 Minutes
Unlimited Texts
£10 Amazon Gift Card
£50 Discount on Selected BT Shop Mobile Phones

PRICE: £5 per month (£10 without discount)

BT Mobile 2GB Plan
2GB Data
500 Minutes
Unlimited Texts
£30 Amazon Gift Card
£50 Discount on Selected BT Shop Mobile Phones

PRICE: £10 per month (£15 without discount)

BT Mobile 15GB Plan
15GB Data
Unlimited Minutes
Unlimited Texts
£60 Amazon Gift Card
£50 Discount on Selected BT Shop Mobile Phones

PRICE: £16 per month (£21 without discount)

Oddly the 15GB plan has replaced BT’s initial 20GB option, albeit for a slightly lower price. By comparison the new tariffs follow the same mould by offering three simple plans with the same amount of data usage and unlimited texts, but after that they differ by applying a longer 24 month contract term, different bundles of free minutes (Plan 1: 400 mins / Plan 2: 1,000 mins / Plan 3: Unlimited mins) and a higher monthly price to compensate for the bundled Smartphone cost.

For example, the cheapest tariff for an existing BT Broadband customer costs £10 per month, which includes 500MB of data, 400 minutes of calls, unlimited texts and a Samsung Galaxy A3 (2016 / 16GB) Smartphone with no upfront cost (read further down for the catch!). Outside of that the monthly tariff prices and upfront costs rise depending upon which of the many Smartphones you choose to bundle and on what plan.

In addition, all BTMobile SIMs now allow Tethering for Android users (this will “soon” be enabled for Apple / iOS users too) and they also include Parental Controls and bill controls for monitoring your usage.

John Petter, CEO of BT Consumer, said:

“Just over a year ago we launched some of the UK’s best value SIM-only offers from just £5 a month. Now we’re going one step further with our fantastic value pay monthly mobile phone contracts with extra savings for loyal BT broadband customers.

We’re offering great deals on great phones, 4G on the UK’s biggest network with unlimited access to the most extensive wi-fi coverage via more than five million BT Wi-fi hotspots. Plus until 7th July you can get discounts of up to 50 per cent for six months.”

The only thing we don’t like is that BT sadly still uses some tedious promotion tactics on their new tariffs. For example, on the Samsung offer that we highlighted above there’s no mention of the £10 per month price on their website being for a limited period or even an asterisk * to hint at it and only by scrolling through reams of hard to read small print did we discover the below disclaimer.

Small print on the Samsung A3 offer: “Introductory offer monthly price for the first six months: £10 per month for BT Broadband customers; £15 per month for non-BT Broadband customers. After six months the monthly price will be: £20 per month for BT Broadband customers; £25 per month for non-BT Broadband customers.”

We really wish BT would stop this practice of concealing key price details in the small print and indeed we can see no reason why they’re waiting to do so until the ASA start to enforce their new rules in October. The only upside is that BT do mention this after you click to order the plan and phone, but that really isn’t good enough and makes it hard for people to compare multiple tariffs without a lot of hassle.