BT Mobile UK Brand Tipped for Revival Next Week by UK Telecoms Giant UPDATE
The CEO of BT Group, Allison Kirkby, is reportedly set to revive the BT Mobile brand next week for consumers alongside a new “Brilliant Things” slogan and major advertising campaign. The move is expected to mark another step back from the telecoms and broadband giants prior strategy of turning EE into the group’s “flagship brand for our consumer customers“.
Back in April 2022 the BT Group announced a major change in their branding strategy (here), which sought simplification (i.e. no more having “two of everything“) by turning EE into their “flagship brand” for most consumer customers, while BT would become the main brand for their Enterprise and Global units. But Plusnet would continue to “serve customers with basic no-frills broadband and landline” (although they’ve since oddly opted not to offer landline phone services on FTTP).
Since then there have been a series of moves to help facilitate this transition (e.g. product changes, withdrawals and customer migrations), which among other things included the removal of their BT Mobile brand in 2023 (customers were instead shifted to EE). Suffice to say, we’ve long questioned the wisdom of the operator’s approach, particularly given that the BT brand was already synonymous with home broadband and phone services.
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However, the first signs of a change came early last year, 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.
A second report, which cropped up toward the end of last year, then suggested that BT might be exploring the possibility of launching a new low-cost mobile service brand to complement their premium EE service (here), which is a role that Plusnet Mobile played before they abandoned that too. But BT later responded to say that they had “no plans to change our mobile offering“, although regular readers already know how we never view the use of “no plans” as being a credible denial of something (plans can and do change, often at a moment’s notice).
Clearly somebody has now decided that consumers aren’t yet confused enough and so, according to The Telegraph (paywall), BT will next week (Thursday 7th May 2026) attempt to revive the BT Mobile brand – supported by a major advertising push at Wembley Stadium alongside football stars. Obviously, there’s going to be an element of TV sport advertising and content involved.
The move, if confirmed, 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. At the time of writing it remains unclear if the original brand name will still apply, but we’ll find out soon enough.
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UPDATE 8:34am
According to ISPreview’s sources, the BT Mobile revival will initially start by offering 30 day rolling SIM Only contracts (if you want handset bundles then that’s still EE’s domain), and these will only be available to BT Consumer broadband customers. By the sounds of it, BT Mobile won’t be offering any unlimited data plans at launch either (again, you’ll need EE for that).
However, our sources indicate that the BT Mobile revival won’t be the only change happening next week, with what looks like a wider change to BT Group’s various brands (possibly some logo / style changes too).
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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The amount of money these companies must waste in rebranding exercises must be phenomenal. You’ve got a brand, stick with it.
Yep.
I can see maybe why BT is doing this, BT is a name a lot of people go for more than EE, so maybe they are trying to get the gullible people who seem to think that EE have nothing to do with BT.
To be honest, none of the networks are great now, with Vodafone grabbing hold of Three, EE belonging to awful BT and O2 part of Virgin, another company that would not know what customer services is if it hit then between the eyes, we now have little choice.
One of the reasons I changed to a MVNO network, was because the lack of customer service with Vodafone, made me question what the hell I was paying for.
Such a shame that the mobile networks in this country have gone down to 3 networks. Should never have been allowed to happen, but money talks.
Are they ready to Sell!
Is Mr Bacon for the chop!
This will be the 3rd incarnation of the BT mobile brand.
It does make sense in my view. There’s plenty of people who would align themselves to with the BT brand yet don’t buy into the early adopter, young, tech brand that is EE.
The company is on a journey to streamline costs, drive efficiencies and keep things simple. From a company point of view, thanks to various mergers and acquisitions, all their product offerings sat on different systems and platforms making it a nightmare for their agents and not that great for customers. (E.g. having one bill for EE broadband, another for EE mobile and certainly multiple bills if you had both BT and EE products).
They’ve spent years getting people moved across to a new single system / billing platform. Which is why now, when you call in, you’re likely going to be talking to someone who can deal with both brands.
From a FTTP / digital voice perspective, you’ll notice it’s the same product, the same digital voice service, the same voicemail and either branded router can be used. The only difference is you get to choose what brand you go with and at what price point and with what add-ons.
Mobile was a specific nightmare as you had BT Mobile (consumer), built as a MVNO on one platform. BT Mobile business on a separate one. Neither having any integration with EE. You then had Plusnet who was operated externally by a third party company (as this pre-dated them becoming part of BT).
So if there is to be a revival of BT Mobile, I hope it’s because the service and offering is now built on the new EE platform the same way the BT and EE fixed are. The new systems are clearly capable of knowing what logo to stick on bills!
It’s not going to hurt having additional choice. I’ll be keeping an eye on what they’re offering.
Unfortunately its not 🙁
I maintain EE is a weak brand and always has been. O2 and Vodafone are so much stronger.
BT might be hated in some respect but at least is well known.
They should dump EE and just make it BT everything.
What metric makes EE a week brand?
Which week, No longer waiting in Wrexham? This week or next week?
BT own EE. Another market ploy to waste money.
It has been long rumoured on the EE community forum that there will be a TV package refresh at some point this year too. The BT TV web site finer details mention a ‘no frills’ package that doesn’t exist on their TV options.
I believe this was a Legacy Freeview-only package from the BT TV days. No NOW TV bundles or premium channels, just the BT TV equipment.
there was a basic TV package for ADSL customers. The BT price list makes reference to No Frills only being available to those on “standard broadband” so I think this is the same thing. Another package gave them access to BT/TNT Sport as well.
So I doubt it’s a leak of changes to come, though there probably is an argument for a new No Frills for FTTC/FTTP users who can avail of the internet mode in areas where Freeview reception is poor or where they don’t want an aerial.
BETE
The unholy hybrid!
I think they should just phase out the EE brand to be honest and bring it all back under the BT banner.
Ah, but how will all the marketing company’s make any money if they can’t convince businesses they need to carry out rebrands every several years to stay “relevant” and “on brand” with the cool kids?
There’s no harm in retaining the EE brand for mobile, but the plan they were on a few years ago to drop the BT brand from all consumer services was a bit daft.
Marc Allera (EE cheerleader in chief) is gone so sanity will prevail and BT will become the lead brand again. Just goes to show how one personality can influence an entire organisational direction…
Personally I’d move everything under the BT brand, make the brand brighter and clearer (but not the colours EE have right now). No muss, no fuss.
BT Consumer (simply branded as BT for the public)
BT Business
BT Enterprise
BT Public Service (Government, Military etc.)
Openreach
No Plusnet, no EE, nothing else, just BT and that’s all. However, I’d merge plans and have everything from very basic to premium under one roof. I’d argue most people don’t care too much what the brand is, so long as the cost (especially in these times), works for them. If they can offer a simple enough range of pricing to suit everyone (from those who want and need very high end, to those who want / need / can only afford basic connectivity), and combine it with a simple, bright brand, they’d do well. Save so much duplication in terms of branding costs. Yes, they would have to pay a reasonable amount to change the signs etc., but that’s part of doing business. In the interim, they could go with the BT brand, but in the same style as EE – just literally change out the letters on the logo. Make things simple and easy, and people will be more inclined to use your service.
While BT was a name that some people trust for some strange reason, it was also for others an expensive brand and some people like me remember when we had little choice but to have BT for home phones and was charged a fortune for doing so. Bt took the pee that there was no competition, and it was only when a bit of competition did arrive that BT started to change their ways, like having local calls included with line rental and the fact that they were told to.
Younger generation seems to go for EE, or they did, not sure why, maybe they think it is different from BT, but more or less BT with a different name.
Plusnet was grabbed so BT could compete with the lower price providers, like Talk Talk, suppose to be a no frills ISP, but it was not no frills. It still had TV, mobile and email services. A no frills provider for me is one that just connected you to the net.
But they did compete with the lower price services and as far as I know they still do. But these days there is very little difference in any of them on the Openreach network these days. Looking on one of the compare sites plusnet, Talk Talk, Now and Vodafone are more or less the same price around the 75-150Mb/s service. But they all go up to higher prices over the 2 year contract they force you into.
I can understand why some people who don’t stream use mobile only.
Waste of money as per. What would have been fun would be a rebrand to ‘BT Cellnet’
I was doing some sorting out in my computer room and found my old Motorola Talkabout phone with the cellnet logo on. I remember it being on PAYG. The sim is also still in it, but the battery is not, no idea where that went.
Those were the better days sometimes I think, no constant notifications like modern phones. Seems like these days we have to be there for every notification.
I stopped the notifications for emails and some apps, it was slowly driving me mad. I will get my emails when I use the computer or when i look
I was with BT for sometime (both broadband and mobile) and when they “forced” me to migrate to EE not only I felt differently a less attached to the brand but the value o was getting was worse. Whoever decided to not continue leveraging BT as a brand should be fired or reallocated to special projects within the company. Why on earth would you not use the BT brand who everyone knows and has positive connotations? They lost me as a customer in the end…
He was fired, Marc Allera
Less attached to the brand?
That is something I have never felt, attached to any brand. The provider I have now, I am not attached to, not sure who they are any more, they still use the zzoomm name, but my brother had a befibre router and even some documents had befibre on them.
They supply my broadband at a decent price and is reliable.
I know I say I am not a fan of BT/Openreach, but only because I think they are too big, have too much market and has an advantage over other providers and also they peed me off years ago.
I don’t have any attachment to a brand, you would notice that if you came in my house.
I must admit I did use AMD CPUs, when I used to update my PC and went for Corsair memory, but only because they did the job for me and I did not like Intel as a company.
If I update my PC again, I will go for what ever memory brand is cheaper.
I will stay with Zzoomm as long as I live here or in a place I can get it and as long as they provide with a good service. But no attachment, all I get from them is an email every month to say they are going to take money from my account, I expect I will get a email in June when my contract is up.
BT always reminds me of the WFH culture and OAP’s
Just call it Cellnet and be done with it
These monopolies are never happy, money grabbing pigs who don’t give a toss about customers, give them enough rope and they’ll hang them selves, they know the other operators are winning more customers and they can’t wear it , mvnos are the way forward, better customer service , prices etc, long may they last
They have a monopoly on mobile networks? Don’t tell Vodafone or o2.
Not very good monopolies if MVNOs are an option.