BT has reached this key milestone more than six months earlier than projected, having set out in July 2006 a target of achieving a million VoIP customers within twelve months.
Gavin Patterson, managing director of consumer at BT Retail, welcomed the news: “We now have more than a million customer accounts for our VoIP services – and to achieve this in six months is nothing short of spectacular. UK consumers are clearly happy to embrace internet telephony when it is straightforward to use and offers great value, and through BT Total Broadband our customers are getting all the benefits that broadband has to offer.”
The June 2006 launch of BT Total Broadband placed internet telephony at the heart of the UK’s most comprehensive, value-packed broadband packages. Following a major revamp, BT unveiled three new VoIP services under the BT Broadband Talk banner, allowing customers to make calls through their PC, a videophone or a phone.
BT Broadband Talk enables customers to use their broadband connections as an extra line, getting inclusive evening and weekend calls to UK* landlines. Customers on BT Broadband Talk get a separate phone number and can choose a high value monthly calling plan alongside calling features such as 1471 and BT Answer. International calls cost from 1.25p per minute plus 3p set up fee and mobile calls from just 5p per minute.
BT Softphone is easy to download, and gives free global PC-to-PC chat at any time of day. It is compatible with BT Broadband Talk through one calling plan and one phone number. All customers of BT’s prior PC-based service, BT Communicator, can now make their calls with BT Softphone.