BT Offer 6 Months Free Fibre, Phone and Mobile to 1000 SMEs

Back in July BT Business promised a new bursary scheme to help 1,000 UK start-ups and entrepreneurs to recover from the COVID-19 crisis (here). The ISP has now revealed that, as part of that, they will be giving 6 months of “free fibre broadband, digital phone line and mobile” to those small businesses that apply.

The bundles, which also include the HALO product for businesses, will be provided “completely free of charge” for the first six months on a 24-month contract term. One of the advantages of HALO is that it can automatically switch to 4G (mobile broadband) to help small businesses stay connected if there’s a problem with the fixed line (provided your area can get a good signal) and you can share fixed line phone calls to your mobile.

Under the new bursary scheme, the ISP is offering UK start-ups a number of bundles to choose from, starting from £34.95 (excluding VAT) per month after the first 6 months. These include:

• Halo for business broadband and digital phone line bundle
  First 6 months free, then £34.95 per month excluding VAT for next 18 months

• Halo for business broadband, digital phone line and 4G SIM-only bundle
  First 6 months free, then £39.95 per month excluding VAT for next 18 months

Unfortunately, the announcement doesn’t mention what kind of “fibre broadband” service this includes, but from that price point we’d assume it’s one of their “up to” 76Mbps capable FTTC/P packages. Eligible companies can apply for a bursary from today by visiting: www.bt.com/tech-bursary.

To qualify, customers will need to have set up their company after 1st October, 2019 and they’ll need to be taking a BT business broadband service for the first time. BT’s customer service team will contact applicants the next working day to talk them through the best bundled broadband, digital phone line and mobile option to suit their needs.

While the bursary will be made available to 1,000 eligible companies initially, BT say they “will be closely monitoring interest in the scheme and will consider extending it to more UK start-up companies, subject to demand.”