BT’s entry into the highly competitive bundles market has been eagerly anticipated since last September when Ofcom removed restrictions allowing BT to compete with rivals on an equal footing.
One of the first offers is Option 1 broadband of up to 20Mb and Anytime calls to UK landlines and 0870 and 0845 numbers at any time for £7.99 a month for the first three months of an 18-month contract, the remainder at £15.99 a month. The special offer bundle effectively gives customers their UK calls free, as the price is the same as the usual cost for just the broadband.
The new package is available online for the first half of March for new customers buying through the bt.com web site
John Petter, managing director of BT’s Consumer division, said: “We wanted to give our customers a great seasonal sale and to promote our all-in calls package.
“Over the last 12 months, 3.6 million of our customers have moved to calls packages, where you don’t pay for every call.
“Offering a bundle of broadband and Anytime calls for this knockdown price will launch us into the bundles market as an unrestricted competitor for the first time. There will be many more bundled offers to come and customers can only benefit.”
BT has said previously that it aims to provide customers with a truly “all-you-can-eat” calls package. At the moment, very high mobile termination charges of around 4p a minute, make that impossible. BT and mobile operator 3 launched the “Terminate the Rate” campaign calling for lower rates, which has collected more than 120,000 signatures. It is hoped that Ofcom will cut the rates to around 1p a minute, allowing mobile calls to be included economically in packages.
As well as the special March offer, BT has now started offering a range of packages combining calls, broadband and its Vision TV service at lower rates. Significant savings are now possible for customers taking multiple products, with calls, broadband and TV available from £9.99 a month.
BT announced in December that it has cemented its position as the UK’s leading broadband provider by passing the five million customer mark. The company is rolling out up to 20Mb broadband to exchanges across the UK and is committed to running super-fast fibre broadband to 10 million homes and businesses by summer 2012.