BT launches best ever value broadband with price cuts of up to 25 per cent

BT is to slash the rental prices for its family of consumer broadband products by up to a massive 25 per cent.

The price reductions, available to both new and existing broadband customers, will be effective from 1st July 2004.

The prices for the Broadband from BT family of products will now be as follows:

• 
  

  BT Broadband (512k) - down from £27 per month to £24.99

  
  
• 
  

  BT Yahoo! Broadband 512k - down from £29.99 per month to £26.99

  
  
• 
  

  BT Yahoo! Broadband 1Mb - down from £40.99 per month to £29.99,

  
  
• 
  

  BT Broadband Basic (512k),  remains at £19.99 per month, now with free modem and connection.

All products will continue to offer free connection and modem when purchased online.*      

Until now, lighter users of broadband have been paying the same price as a small minority of exceptionally high users.   To resolve this, BT will be introducing fair usage allowances, enabling us to offer our customers lower monthly prices.

The new monthly allowances have been set at levels significantly higher than the usage of the overwhelming majority of broadband customers. For example, the 512k services, featuring a 15GB allowance, will still enable customers to do all of the following each month:

• 
  

  Surf the internet for 15 hours every day,

  
  
• 
  

  Send / receive 250 JPEG pictures via e-mail per week,

  
  
• 
  

  Download 250 music tracks and three hours of video clips per week,

  
  
• 
  

  Listen to online radio for fifteen hours every day,

  
  
• 
  

  Send / receive 3000 emails*** per  week.

With the exception of BT Broadband Basic, the limits will only be advisory until Jan 2005.

Duncan Ingram, MD of BTOpenworld, said: "Today's announcement gives customers the best ever value broadband from a name you can trust.

"What makes BT's Broadband Family different from the competition is the unique combination of speed, choice, content, and service: speed, in that all our products offer full broadband (512k and above). With 1Mb now extremely affordable and £39.00 a year cheaper than NTL, we have one of the best priced 1Mb products in the market; choice, in that we have a full range of products to meet different customer needs from £19.99; content, with evolving applications and content supplied by our world leading partner Yahoo! which this week includes free premium broadband content of Wimbledon.

And service, with the reassuring back up of BT's extensive service organisation.

"Today's price cuts and our announcement to extend broadband coverage to  99.6 % of the UK by August 2005,  shows BT's commitment to bring broadband to as wide an audience as possible. Our new pricing packages  bring broadband technology within reach of even more UK consumers, helping us play our part in making Broadband Britain a reality."

"And with over 1 million Retail Broadband customers already, BT is fast becoming 'The Broadband of Choice' in the UK".

Notes to Editors:

* Customers ordering offline pay £25.00 for the modem
** Price applies for payment by direct debt, otherwise £1.00 additional charge
*** emails with no attachments

BT Group plc is the listed holding company for an integrated group of businesses providing voice and data services in the UK and overseas, particularly in Europe, but also in the Americas and the Asia Pacific region.  British Telecommunications plc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc, holds virtually all businesses and assets of the BT group.

BT is one of Europe's leading providers of telecommunications services.  Its principal activities include local, national and international telecommunications services, higher-value broadband and internet products and services, and IT solutions.  In the UK, BT serves over 20 million business and residential customers with more than 29 million exchange lines, as well as providing network services to other licensed operators.

BT consists principally of three lines of business:

• 
  

  BT Retail, serving businesses and residential customers and including BT Openworld, one of the UK's leading ISPs.

  
  
• 
  

  BT Wholesale, providing network services and solutions within the UK, including ADSL, conveyance, transit, bulk delivery of private circuits, frame relay and ISDN connections.

  
  
• 
  

  BT Global Services, BT's managed services and solutions provider, serving multi-site organisations worldwide.  Its core target market is the top 10,000 global multi-site organisations with European operations.

There are a number of other businesses within the BT group, including BT Exact, an internationally renowned centre of excellence in IT and networking technologies. It is also BT's technology and research and development business.

In the year ended 31 March 2004, BT's turnover was £18,519million with profit before goodwill amortisation, exceptional items and taxation of £2,016million.

For more information, visit www.bt.com

BT confirms timetable for broadband roll out

BT today provided clarity for more than a thousand communities across the UK by setting dates for when they will have access to broadband. The move follows an earlier announcement that BT would be rolling out broadband so that 99.6 per cent of UK households are connected to broadband exchanges by August 2005.

The roll out is the latest stage of an ongoing investment by BT that has already seen more than one billion pounds spent on its UK broadband network. It will lead to almost one million more households being connected to broadband exchanges and it will require 5,500 kilometres of new cable to be laid across the country.

BT's investment will ensure the UK remains ahead of its major international competitors. A recent report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) identified the UK as having plans that will ensure the country has the best DSL broadband availability within the G7 group of countries.

BT's roll out programme will speed up the national deployment of broadband bringing it to more communities in a shorter time than would otherwise have been possible. By adopting a systematic approach, BT has been able to combine a faster roll out of broadband with the most efficient engineering solution. The systematic roll out has also enabled BT to bring forward the enablement of 59 additional exchanges that had hit their triggers before the closure of the registration scheme.

Ritchie, BT chief broadband officer, said today: "Today's news provides clarity for more than a thousand communities across the UK. People have been keen to know when they will have access to broadband and this clarity from BT will allow them to plan ahead with confidence. 

"Whilst this move will ensure the UK leads the G7 in broadband availability, more has to be done in terms of driving take up. It is particularly important for the UK that businesses adopt and embrace broadband.

"BT is working hard to transform the market from narrowband to broadband and to ensure that every part of the UK can benefit from the broadband revolution".

Today's timetable will see broadband delivered to every remaining exchange except for the very smallest which between them account for fewer than 100,000 premises across the UK.

Alison Ritchie added: "BT is not forgetting these small numbers of communities who are still to be told when they will receive broadband. These communities are served by the very smallest exchanges and BT is working hard to find solutions for them. These solutions depend on the support of external partners and so BT will continue to seek to work in partnership with public sector and other organisations. Possible solutions include wireless and satellite broadband as well as BT's Exchange Activate product."

BT also announced that the initial results from trials to extend the reach of broadband beyond its current limit (roughly 6km) were looking very promising. BT is confident it will find a way over the summer to extend the reach of broadband ADSL services to over a million more homes and businesses throughout the UK.

The full timetable can be accessed at www.bt.com/broadband. 
  
Notes to Editors
BT has upgraded its systems so that people can order broadband from a service provider immediately rather than having to wait for their exchange to be upgraded before placing their order. This will ensure that people have access as soon as possible.

About BT
BT Group plc is the listed holding company for an integrated group of businesses providing voice and data services in the UK and overseas, particularly in Europe, but also in the Americas and the Asia Pacific region.  British Telecommunications plc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc, holds virtually all businesses and assets of the BT group.

BT is one of Europe's leading providers of telecommunications services.  Its principal activities include local, national and international telecommunications services, higher-value broadband and internet products and services, and IT solutions.  In the UK, BT serves over 20 million business and residential customers with more than 29 million exchange lines, as well as providing network services to other licensed operators.

BT consists principally of three lines of business:

• 
  

  BT Retail, serving businesses and residential customers and including BT Openworld, one of the UK's leading ISPs.

  
  
• 
  

  BT Wholesale, providing network services and solutions within the UK, including ADSL, conveyance, transit, bulk delivery of private circuits, frame relay and ISDN connections.

  
  
• 
  

  BT Global Services, BT's managed services and solutions provider, serving multi-site organisations worldwide.  Its core target market is the top 10,000 global multi-site organisations with European operations.

There are a number of other businesses within the BT group, including BT Exact, an internationally renowned centre of excellence in IT and networking technologies. It is also BT's technology and research and development business.

In the year ended 31 March 2004, BT's turnover was £18,519million with profit before goodwill amortisation, exceptional items and taxation of £2,016million.

For more information, visit www.bt.com

BT takes broadband revolution into new territory

BT today announced a range of cutting-edge products and services that will transform the use of broadband in the UK.

Four innovations - Flexible Bandwidth, BT Rich Media, BT Communicator and BT Remote Management System - will cement BT's key position as the broadband battle moves on from access to content, applications and managed services.

These developments will also form the backbone of BT Retail's broadband strategy and play a key part in helping the Group achieve its target of five million connections by 2006.

Pierre Danon, chief executive of BT Retail said: "We have shown innovation and drive in enabling almost universal access to broadband in the UK. Now we aim to push forward with the next crucial phase - giving people solid reasons to buy broadband by using the technology to transform their lives and the way they communicate.

"These new products and services provide broadband that is flexible and powerful enough to meet the customer's every need. They demonstrate clearly that there is far more to broadband than speed, as there has to be if we are to realise mass-adoption far beyond the current two million mark. Not only are they hugely exciting, these developments are real and ready for roll-out, pushing back the frontiers of technology today."

Flexible bandwidth, which will be introduced initially as a trial, gives customers the ability to boost the power of their broadband at the click of a button, while a new remote management system will allow BT to provide exceptional advice and support to customers as they increase their use of broadband by connecting it to a range of devices in the home.

BT Communicator will fundamentally transform the way in which people communicate through its multi-media capability, and BT Rich Media will allow content suppliers, large and small, to package and deliver digital services, like music, games and video, to a mass market.

Danon added: "This is the second stage of the broadband revolution in the UK and we aim to drive it forward. Earlier this month, BT announced its first sub-£20 broadband product. Today's announcement underlines our determination to continue innovating to ensure broadband develops a 'must-have' appeal for millions more households throughout the UK."

The four innovations to be introduced at different stages over the next few months, are:

• 
  

  Flexible bandwidth - gives users the power to temporarily boost their broadband speed at the click of a mouse, up to an ultra-fast 2 megabits per second. This will give access  a wealth of premium content, such as DVD-quality streamed videos or online gaming. Users who find they continually need to accelerate their broadband speed, like Broadband Basic customers who constantly exceed their 1Gb limit, can instantly upgrade their service online, allowing them to move seamlessly between BT's family of broadband products. Triallists for the flexible bandwidth product will be recruited from today, with the trial scheduled to start next month.

  
  
• 
  

  BT Rich Media - to capitalise on flexible bandwidth, BT is launching a platform to drive the management and distribution of new and exciting digital content. BT's partnership with Real will provide the tools to allow anyone to create and distribute content themselves. The platform will enable thousands of content publishers, from major record labels to local football teams, to reach millions of people. BT Rich Media will be launched on April 6.

  
  
• 
  

  BT Communicator - gives customers a truly converged multi-media communication experience, driven by innovative VoIP technology. For the first time, customers can manage all their home communications from their PC, allowing them to make phone or video calls over a broadband connection. Downloadable for free via the internet, the software package combines voice services with Yahoo!'s  Instant Messaging platform, enabling users to manage all their communications - phone calls, emails, instant messaging and text messages - together in one place. BT Communicator will be made available for trial in May.

  
  
• 
  

  BT Remote Management System -  enhances network support capability  in the broadband home.  This will allow troubleshooting and diagnosis of broadband service issues using information from BT, provided from intelligent home network routers in a customer's home. The system will be live later in 2004.

- Ends -

For more information, please contact:

Jon Carter, BT Retail Press Office: 020 7356 4523
Malcolm Williams, BT Retail Press Office: 01442 294306
Stephanie Mair, Octane PR: 020 7802 2662

About BT's consumer broadband family
BT's broadband family is designed to give consumers the ultimate broadband internet experience. Our range of simple packages, offering different speeds and prices, means that no matter what your needs - BT has the answer. The services within BT's consumer broadband family are:

BT Broadband Basic - 'Fast, no frills' Price: £19.99/month (if pay via DD), £30 activation charge and £50 modem.
Features & Benefits:

• 
  

  Up to 10x faster than the speed of dialup

  
  
• 
  

  Ideal for the lighter user, 1 Gig usage allowance per month i.e. 200 music tracks

  
  
• 
  

  Choose your own content and services from the web, access to exclusive Partner offers

  
  
• 
  

  Unlimited online support

  
  
• 
  

  Telephone support at Premium rate

BT Broadband - 'Freedom to choose'
Price: £27/month (if pay via DD)
Features & Benefits:

• 
  

  Up to 10x faster than the speed of dialup

  
  
• 
  

  Unlimited online & free telephone support

  
  
• 
  

  Choose your own content and services from the web, access to exclusive Partner offers

  
  
• 
  

  Ideal for sharing broadband across one or more PC's  and gaming

BT Yahoo! Broadband - 'A complete package'
Price: £29.99/month
Features & Benefits:

• 
  

  Up to 10x faster than the speed of dialup

  
  
• 
  

  11 free email addresses, instant messenger and your own web space

  
  
• 
  

  Free firewall, pop up ad-blocker, email protection and parental controls

  
  
• 
  

  Personalised content for the entire family

  
  
• 
  

  Ideal for sharing broadband across one or more PCs and playing online games

BT Broadband 1mb - 'Freedom to choose for speed fanatics'
Price: £38/month (if pay via DD)
Features & Benefits:

• 
  

  Up to 20x faster than the speed of dialup

  
  
• 
  

  Get all the benefits of BT Broadband at twice the speed Perfect for richer content like downloading music or videos

  
  
• 
  

  Unlimited online & free telephone support

BT Yahoo! Broadband 1mb - 'The complete package for speed fanatics'
Price: £40.99/month
Features & Benefits:

• 
  

  Up to 20x faster than the speed of dialup

  
  
• 
  

  Get all the benefits of BT Yahoo Broadband at twice the speed, 11 free email addresses, instant messenger and your own web space

  
  
• 
  

  Free firewall, pop up ad-blocker, email protection and parental controls

  
  
• 
  

  Personalised content for the entire family

About BT
BT Group plc is the listed holding company for an integrated group of businesses providing voice, data and video services in the UK and elsewhere in Europe.  British Telecommunications plc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group, holds virtually all businesses and assets of the BT group.

BT is one of Europe's leading providers of telecommunications services.  Its principal activities include local, national and international telecommunications services, higher-value broadband and internet products and services, and IT solutions.  In the UK, BT serves over 20 million business and residential customers with more than 29 million exchange lines, as well as providing network services to other licensed operators.

BT consists principally of three lines of business:

• 
  

  BT Retail, serving businesses and residential customers and including BT Openworld, one of the UK's leading ISPs.

  
  
• 
  

  BT Wholesale, providing network services and solutions within the UK, including ADSL, conveyance, transit, bulk delivery of private circuits, frame relay and ISDN connections.

  
  
• 
  

  BT Global Services, BT's managed services and solutions provider, serving multi-site organisations worldwide.  Its core target market is the top 10,000 global multi-site organisations with European operations.

There are a number of other businesses within the BT group, including BT Exact, an internationally renowned centre of excellence in IT and networking technologies. It is also BT's technology and research and development business.

In the year ended 31 March 2003, BT's turnover was £18,727m. with profit before taxation of £1,829m.

For more information, visit www.bt.com

1. 1. 이창재 '04.7.11 9:23 PM 신고
   :-)*도대체 뭐가.ㅡㅡ;;해석 좀 부탁드려요..;;고등학생에겐 저건 무리라구요.;; ↓댓글에댓글
2. 2. 김효식 '04.7.7 10:41 AM 신고
   :-)*흠...... ↓댓글에댓글
3. 3. 심명혜 '04.7.7 7:28 AM 신고
   :-)*그렇군요. ↓댓글에댓글
4. 4. 김홍범 '04.7.22 1:04 PM 신고
   :-)*영어?노~ ↓댓글에댓글
5. 5. 이세조 '04.7.23 8:47 PM 신고
   :-)*흠...그렇쿤...흠흠...-┏ ↓댓글에댓글
6. 6. 원성연 '04.7.27 4:22 AM 신고
   :-)*아 그렇군요. ~ ↓댓글에댓글
7. 7. 오은석 '04.7.27 4:29 PM 신고
   :-|*솔직히 모르는 단어 사전 찾아가면서 몇분씩 허비하기 싫군요. ↓댓글에댓글
8. 8. 임철환 '04.7.27 11:52 PM 신고
   :-)*영어를 다 해석할 필요는 없지 않습니까...
   1M 속도 나오는 사람이 한달에 30기가 다운받았더니 30파운드 (6만5천원정도) 나왔답니다.
   512k 쓰는 사람은, 한달에 1기가 다운받고 20파운드 냈답니다. 아시겠습니까?
   
   졸라게 비싸더란 말입니 ↓댓글에댓글
9. 9. 류기원 '04.8.16 10:22 PM 신고
   :-)*아..그러그러했군.. 심각해~ ↓댓글에댓글

1. 1. :-)*도대체 뭐가.ㅡㅡ;;해석 좀 부탁드려요..;;고등학생에겐 저건 무리라구.. 이창재 '04.7.11 9:23 PM
2. 2. :-)*흠...... 김효식 '04.7.7 10:41 AM
3. 3. :-)*그렇군요. 심명혜 '04.7.7 7:28 AM
4. 4. :-)*영어?노~ 김홍범 '04.7.22 1:04 PM
5. 5. :-)*흠...그렇쿤...흠흠...-┏ 이세조 '04.7.23 8:47 PM
6. 6. :-)*아 그렇군요. ~ 원성연 '04.7.27 4:22 AM
7. 7. :-|*솔직히 모르는 단어 사전 찾아가면서 몇분씩 허비하기 싫군요. 오은석 '04.7.27 4:29 PM
8. 8. :-)*영어를 다 해석할 필요는 없지 않습니까...
   1M 속도 나오는 사.. 임철환 '04.7.27 11:52 PM
9. 9. :-)*아..그러그러했군.. 심각해~ 류기원 '04.8.16 10:22 PM