BT Group has announced a relaunch of its Consumer division - comprising BT, EE and Plusnet - to deliver converged products through a 'Best Connected' strategy. This new strategy will bring together broadband, mobile and Wi-Fi to provide seamless connectivity for customers across the UK. It will also see BT establish a new Consumer Partnership Unit dedicated to partnering with innovative companies worldwide.
These converged products and services will include smart home, family plans, and new streaming partnerships and services. There will also be significant investment in customer service across all three consumer brands, as well a commitment to answer 100 percent of customer calls in UK and Ireland call centres by end-2020. This new 'Best Connected' strategy will also see BT return to the High Street in 2018, providing customers with BT products and services in EE stores.
The new converged, smart network is scheduled for completion in 2022. It will see BT Consumer make ultrafast broadband, with speeds of up to 314 Mbps and guaranteed speed of more than 100 Mbps, available to more homes, up from one million eligible homes today. The division will also work to increase the time spent by mobile customers on 4G to 99 percent by 2020, and be the first to market with 5G mobile to complement 4G.
New products and services launched under this new Converged category include BT Plus, combining home broadband, mobile and Wi-Fi into a single plan. EE will launch new converged ultrafast home broadband plans, including 4GEE Backup and Home Move. EE customers will also get data boosts on their EE mobile plan, with up to 20GB of mobile data they can gift to family members on the same account. EE will also launch new Flex pay-monthly mobile plans, allowing customers to increase or decrease their allowance or take a month's break, and get data boosts every three months of consecutive payments.
EE is also showcasing a prototype for a new category of home broadband - EE Hybrid Broadband technology. This combines the superfast broadband network with with the 4G network. It will also become the first UK network to support all major Smart Home systems, with new partnerships with Hive and Nest, as well as launching new smart cameras, thermostats, sensors and lighting products. The new EE Smart Home range will be available online, via telesales and in select EE stores from 01 June.
As part of BT Consumer's push to offer the best and more personal support for customers, EE is partnering with delivery and set-up specialists Enjoy to offer a same-day smartphone delivery and set-up service. Launching in the summer, this service will initially be available in London. EE will also launch new augmented reality (AR) customer service tools called EE Remote Support and EE Virtual Support, allowing EE experts to inspect the location and set-up of customers' routers and devices through their smartphone camera. Plusnet will also launch a new self-service app for mobile customers to view their bill and get help on a range of topics 24/7.
BT Consumer will also adopt an open super aggregator TV strategy to provide customers with a wide range of content. This will see BT including the Amazon Prime Video app in addition to Netflix, as well as providing customers with access to NOW TV from 2019. The new BT TV app will allow customers to download and play content on the move for the first time, and will also be available on more platforms including Apple TV, Google Chromecast and Samsung Smart TVs. EE customers will also get access to a range of new mobile TV features during 2018, including access to new BT Sport app features. This will include the ability to cast direct from their mobile to their TV with inclusive data.
