BT on Monday confirmed that it will announce its return to the U.K. consumer mobile market in a matter of days.
"We’re very much on track to launch consumer mobile services this financial year," a BT spokesman told Total Telecom. BT’s financial year ends on 31 March.
BT said that at first, its mobile services will only be available to existing customers. "[We] will tell you more about them soon," the spokesman said.
The U.K. incumbent was responding to a report in the Telegraph at the weekend that claimed it will launch BT Mobile, as the service will be branded, this week.
BT will operate as an MVNO using networks operated by EE, the mobile network operator BT is in the process of acquiring in a deal worth £12.5 billion.
BT plans to offer a 4G mobile service that undercuts the tariffs on offer from major operators, the newspaper said. Without citing its sources, it said that BT Mobile will generally cost less than services from EE, O2 and Vodafone, but will not be as cheap as those sold by value players like 3UK and other virtual players like GiffGaff.
It is understood that BT Mobile will be a SIM-only service that will not offer handsets. This is to avoid duplicating the handset acquisition and distribution assets it is set to gain from the EE deal.
The Telegraph report also claimed that BT will wait until the end of the current football season before embarking on a major marketing campaign for BT Mobile.
