UK ISP BT Goes Live with New Ultrafast 5G Mobile Plans on EE
BT has today – as promised earlier this week (here) – taken the wraps off their new EE-based UK 5G mobile plans with bigger data (mobile broadband) allowances of up to 200GB. But their new “unlimited mobile data” plan will follow in November with the launch of Halo (combining fixed broadband and mobile together).
As you’d expect, BT’s service will mirror EE’s currently limited 5G network availability (here), which within their coverage is promising to deliver a predicted increase in speeds of around 100-150Mbps, even in the busiest of places. Typically you’ll only get the top data allowance of 200GB if you also take the BT Plus service (converged broadband and mobile), which doubles all of their standard data allowances.
BT Mobile also offers a significant price discount to existing home broadband customers, even without the BT Plus add-on. For example, their top 100GB SIM-Only plan with unlimited calls/texts is normally £35 per month on a 12 month term but this falls to £30 if you’re an existing BT Broadband customer and the data jumps to 200GB if you also take BT Plus.
The prices will of course rise if you bundle in a 5G Smartphone and the initial selection is as follows: Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G, Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, OPPO Reno 5G and the Huawei Mate 20 X. All of BT’s 5G smartphone plans also allow customers to benefit from inclusive BT Sport app access.
Marc Allera, CEO of BT’s Consumer Division, said:
“Our 5G service provides customers with a faster and more reliable connection in high demand, crowded areas across the UK at peak times. When combined with the best fibre, the UK’s fastest 4G network and biggest wi-fi network, BT is helping consumers and businesses stay connected wherever they are and whatever they need to do.”
As a reminder, BT Plus is a converged fibre and mobile plan and comes with their “Keep Connected Promise“. If a BT Plus customer reports a fault with their home broadband, the ISP will switch on free unlimited data via their mobile within an hour and will also send a free 4G Wi-Fi Mini Hub to arrive the next day (also with unlimited data) to keep customers connected at home during the downtime. Plus customers also benefit from 24/7 dedicated UK and Ireland support.
BT Business customers can also take out the 5G services from today, starting from £35 per month for a handset plan or £15 per month for a SIM only plan when taken with an existing BT business broadband connection (applies a -£10 monthly discount).
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 and Linkedin.
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As pitiful and expensive as I would expect from BT.
Same tariff (100GB doubled to 200GB for Plus customers) was available through cashback sites/affiliate marketing links for only £20 last month, with a reward card and/or cashback on top making the effective price even lower.
The ‘deals’ websites are a good place to look if you want a discounted BT or EE tariff. Meanwhile loyal customers who go directly to the main website continue to pay a premium price while also saving BT a commission payment.
Care to elaborate on that? Which bit is pitiful? Which bit is expensive? Can you offer a direct comparison of another 5g service that offers a better price/coverage/performance? I’d be interested in a direct comparison of these deals.
From my experience, BT Mobile has been wonderful. Same coverage as I got from EE, naturally, and though I’ve not jumped to the 5g bandwagon just yet, my 4g speeds have been well above 60mbps outside, and hover around 40 inside. I’m a BT Plus customer, and have made use of the backup device they send during a fault that took some time to resolve after some lout in a Corsa wrapped himself around our local cabinet. Worked great, and as son as I reported the fault I got a text saying my unlimited data was active, I didn’t even have to wait for the backup MiFi thing to arrive. Once Openreach got their traffic management permissions the street was back online. During that fault we also got the automatic compensation, just like Ofcom said it should be, £8 per day after the initial 48 hour period Openreach gets to resolve a fault. Didn’t have to ask for it, was just applied on the next bill. Admittedly there’s cheaper broadband options out there, but for what I get, I’m happy, consistent 76mbit speeds on the fixed line, good 4g speeds, failover 4g for when we had a fault. I know people have had bad experiences, but mine have been good. Apart from the installation, but that was an Openreach resourcing issue.
Same people always whinge about premium ISP prices and then complain when their bucket shop ISP screws them.
Tempted to move to EE as their speeds are much better.
Bear in mind that different providers may have different speeds on the same network. Virgin is also on BT but in downloads it was significantly slower – on the same handset at the same time.
BT “extra speed”: 85.9/43.6 Mbps down/up 22ms ping, vs. 60/37 32ms on Virgin. (Single stream: 82.9/29.1 vs. 35/34.)
This was with BT’s 20GB tarriff (marked as having said “extra speed”), of which I have only managed to use 1.7GB… I need to hook this SIM up to my server! Sadly doing 1.5TB/month up/down as you can on cable might get pricy
It didn’t help when I was staying in a castle this year – only worked at the windows (another person managed on O2 -maybe they had a microcell). But overall, it is very good.
@Milky Yes of course. Its the data allowance that is pitiful and the price bit is the expensive part. Vodafone cheaper (£30, though Im paying £20 due to cash back) for unlimited, though that maybe 3 Tb limit in actual fact. But 100 Gb / 200 Gb vs 3000 Gb I would call that pitiful, wouldn’t you? Three is £21 as standard and is around 1000 Gb.
So to conclude, its the least amount of data and the biggest prices compared to the competition. But that is par for the course for BT.
Birds in Coverntry have started falling from the sky and dieing outside a hospital if 5G has gone live there perhaps they do need to do some safety checks they have failed to complete so far. Others have said the birds are the first casulty to 5G.
There is hope bird brained individuals like yourself may be next then.
@Go Away
I’m not sure 5G can penetrate such thick skulls.
Is this the first phase of BT getting rid of EE brand by putting there own brand in EE stores?
Looks like it, after what happened to Orange/T-Mobile branding following the merger.
They have two brands why would they get rid of one?
@FibreFred Because it doesn’t really make much sense to keep both brands going either keep EE going and get Rid of BT Mobile or get rid of EE Brand and switch entirely to BT. Everybody already knows EE is owned by BT
Perhaps they could mash them up? ET sounds great for a phone company; better than BE (or BET), anyway. Of course, BT may see a resurgence with Brexit due to nationalism.
Possibly not needed now unlimited mobile data is widely available, but I wonder if EE/BT will ever launch the ‘hybrid’ broadband they promoted last year?
The video is still on YouTube but not a word from them since..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juR_Ti-gPyk