BT, the UK’s fixed-line incumbent operator, today unveiled a plan to give away smartphones to its broadband customers in a bid to capture a portion of the UK’s mobile market. The two new ‘BT ToGo’ handsets on offer – the HTC S620 and S710 – will operate over BT’s home wireless networks and public Wi-Fi, and handover to a mobile network when Wi-Fi is unavailable. The handsets are bundled into a new BT broadband offering called ‘Broadband Anywhere.’ Prices range from between £23.99 and £53.99 per month, though only the HTC S620 is given away free with the cheaper tariffs. A standard BT home broadband package is included in the price and users also get access to the BT FON and Openzone Wi-Fi hotspot networks. 

The move is the latest attempt by BT to re-enter the mobile market it exited when it sold-off its mobile arm, BT Cellnet, in 2001. BT Cellnet subsequently morphed into O2 UK, now the UK’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, and one of the many UK mobile operators that is now threatening BT’s fixed-line revenues by building-out its own fixed-line infrastructure. BT is also considered under threat by the recent trend for UK mobile operators to launch ‘dongles’ that allow laptops to access the Internet using high-speed 3G networks.  BT’s last attempt to break into the mobile market with ‘BT Fusion’ – a converged fixed-mobile device – is regarded by analysts as a failure, reportedly attracting fewer than 50,000 customers since its launch in 2005.