BT Group has announced the launch of new products and services, including 5G mobile services, as well as new skills programmes to help create a better connected UK. This will be supported by the launch of a new brand identity to reflect its new 'Beyond Limits' strategy. This new identity will be unveiled with an internal and external campaign launching from Friday 18 October.
BT said it will offer 5G mobile services, using the EE network, from Friday 11 October, for customers in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Belfast and Edinburgh. It will also launch new converged products for homes and business called BT Halo to provide customers with unlimited voice and data at home and on the go, as well as 5G. BT Plus/Halo customers will be the first to be able to upgrade to 5G from 11 October, with customers signing up for 5G and Plus plans upgraded to Halo from November. Further details on the Halo converged products will be unveiled in the coming weeks.
BT also plans to launch a new team of 900 Home Tech Experts to help customers with digital technology in their homes, as well as workplace support. All customer contact centres will be returned to the UK and Ireland from January 2020, 12 months earlier than planned. It also plans to bring the BT brand back to the UK high street in over 600 stores. This will see EE stores upgraded into dual-branded stores to provide consumers and small businesses with local access to experts.
BT is also launching a new digital skills programme called 'Skills for Tomorrow' to help 10 million people, families and businesses get digital skills by 2025. It is partnering with Computing at School, through the Barefoot computing programme, to provide digital skills and computing training for an additional 3 million schoolchildren by 2025. In addition, the Work Ready programme will help an extra 5,000 18-24 year olds not currently in education, employment or training to acquire new skills and work experience by 2025. It will also launch 90 BT-sponsored community training centres across the UK, in partnership with the Good Things Foundation, to provide older, vulnerable and digitally-excluded people with support and training.
BT is also working to upgrade 700,000 homes and businesses to Superfast Broadband by summer 2020 at no extra cost, and will stop selling standard broadband connections on the legacy BT copper network to 90 percent of the UK. For the remaining 10 percent unable to get superfast connections, BT will use all available technology to provide connections, including 4G, 5G broadband and full-fibre. It will also introduce new Full Fibre plans in November; and customers will also be connected to the Digital Voice network from November, provide HD voice and advanced home phone features to replace analogue phone lines across the UK by 2025.
