BT launches mobile package

BT Group PLC
30 October 2003


                                                                October 30, 2003

                       BT LAUNCHES FAMILY MOBILE PACKAGE

                      WITH BIGGEST-EVER HIGH STREET BLITZ

BT today prepared to roll out its biggest-ever high street campaign for the
launch of its new mobile phone package, BT Mobile Home Plan. It is set to blitz
the UK mobile market in the run up to Christmas with a multi-million pound
advertising campaign, supported by major high street retailers and a special
introductory offer for consumers.

BT also unveiled plans to enable customers to text from their BT home phone and
download "infotainment" services to their mobiles.

The BT package, backed by an advertising campaign worth over £5 million, will be
available from November 1 in more than 1,000 retail outlets, including all
branches of Carphone Warehouse, Phones 4U, The Link, and Comet. BT Mobile Home
Plan phones will also be available in Argos stores from January 2004.

The launch is supported by analysis from Deloitte and Touche LLP which proves
that BT Mobile Home Plan is cheaper for families than any pre-pay package from
Virgin, Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile and O2 for most usage profiles.

The new offering, which gives increased savings to families who buy their mobile
phones together as well as free quick calls home, also came out cheapest in many
categories against its rivals for contract customers.

According to the study, a family of four, with four mobile phones, but only
requiring two new handsets under Mobile Home Plan, could save more than £75 per
month on mobile phone bills.

To coincide with the high street launch, BT is introducing a special offer on
purchases made before December 31. Customers can get free handsets and three
months' free line rental on each subscription.

The service is particularly good value for parents who are thinking of buying
phones for themselves and other members of the family. Beyond the initial offer,
line rental for the first handset is £12.50 per month, and £10 each per month
for up to five additional handsets on the same contract. If family members
already have handsets which they would like to keep, there is a SIM-only option
which is just £7.50 per month for the first one and then £5 per month for each
extra SIM.

Pierre Danon, chief executive of BT Retail, said: "The scale of activity around
the launch of BT Mobile Home Plan in the high street shows how serious our
intentions are in the consumer mobile market.

"Over the coming months customers can expect to see a stream of competitive new
services which will be available to BT Mobile Home Plan users as part of our
aggressive strategy to re-enter the consumer mobile market."

Next year, BT will launch BT Mobile World, a mobile "infotainment" service
offering customers popular services such as games and ringtones direct to their
BT mobile phones. BT will also be building mobile functionality into home phones
with the launch of BT Text, a service allowing texts to be sent from a landline
at a reduced cost.

BT Mobile Home Plan is the company's first step back into the mass consumer
mobile market. BT is partnering with T-Mobile and acting as a Mobile Service
Provider on the T-Mobile network.

The consumer mobile phone offerings are expected to play a key role in helping
BT achieve revenue of £300 million from its mobility activities by the end of
2005.

                                     -Ends-

For further information:

Michael Jarvis, BT Retail press office              020 73566045

Damian Peachey, BT Consumer                         020 7356 4774

Emma Simpson/Sarah Stapely, Fishburn Hedges         020 7839 4321

Notes to editors:

About the study

Deloitte & Touche LLP performed an independent assessment of a pricing study
performed by BT which compared BT Mobile Home Plan against the cost of similar
packages from all its main rivals for 15 different combinations of users and
calling profiles. The study ranked each operator's cheapest monthly bill if all
the family opt for the same provider.

BT's offering scored well when members of the group called home often, taking
advantage of the free offer, and also when families take a SIM card-only option
for a family member who is happy to keep an existing handset.

With free calls home individual buyers can also take advantage of a competitive
offer from BT Mobile Home Plan.

Deloitte & Touche LLP

Deloitte & Touche LLP is the UK's fastest growing major professional services
firm based in 21 UK locations, with over 10,000 staff nationwide and fee income
of £1228 million in 2002/2003. It is a member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu,
a leading professional services organisation, delivering world class assurance
and advisory, tax and consulting services, with around 120,000 people in over
140 countries.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu is a Swiss Verein, and each of its national practices
is a separate and independent legal entity.

Deloitte & Touche LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services
Authority.

The information contained in this article is correct at the time of going to
press.

For further information on Deloitte & Touche, you can access its website on
www.deloitte.co.uk

BT Group

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


                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange