BT Mobile Broadband

BT announced a new package in the mobile community for their users. It now has a package deal called BT Total Broadband anywhere. This package will offer broadband on a “free” smart phone. This broadband package allows for the use of the WiFi hotspots that BT has all over the place in the UK. The package will have voice minutes and about a 10 MB GPRS data. This is a small data amount, but the good news is you can be on the internet when you need to be.

The basic Broadband anywhere package is going to be 24 pounds for the first three months. After that time it will become 30 pounds a month. If you already have the Total Broadband option 3, then you can get this package for an extra 5 pounds a month. The BT package with smart phone is going to be an eighteen month contract. This means you can’t change broadband or your mobile phone provided for a year and six months. With the package you will receive a choice of two HTC handsets, a Blackberry style S620 and the candybar with slide out keyboard S710.

The S620 is free on the taxes, but more impressive is the S710 that is 30 pounds on the cheaper tariffs. The phones are called the BT ToGo unit in which some modifications have been made. You get a BT branded home screen so that you can navigate the BT site with alacrity.

This new package is similar to the 2005 release of the BT Fusion. It would provide voice over IP to make phone calls, the Total Broadband service, with Skype for sound. The problem with this last offer was that the handset was 3G compliant, meaning you had to be in range of the hotspot or you would only get 40Kbps, which isn’t really a broadband speed.

The BT mobile broadband service was actually a part of Vodafone’s network, making it harder still to get connection. The new offers are still a little less desirable than others. You have the offer of competitive packages that look better, as well as the same 18 month contract. You also have to be within the WiFi tower to make the speed that you want. With 10MB of data you really won’t have much space on the phone to download.

The fact that there were problems with the Fusion mobile broadband package has sparked the new BT campaign to be better, and they are truly aiming for a specific age group. They feel that those who are older will not need the 3G handsets, and they are banking on getting the older crowd with the lower technology angle, so it will be something to see.