BT make price changes

BT Group PLC
02 April 2003

                                                                   April 2 2003

                        RADICAL PRICING CHANGES MAKE BT

                    UP TO 20 TIMES CHEAPER THAN MAIN RIVALS

BT is challenging its fixed-line competitors head-on by offering customers
national evening and weekend calls up to 20 times cheaper than its major rivals.

The huge savings are part of a radical new pricing structure for the successful
BT Together scheme which sees the end of per-minute charging for all evening and
weekend calls and makes distance irrelevant, with one rate for UK and local
calls.

This means BT Together customers will pay just 6p for up to an hour on all
evening and weekend calls made to anywhere in the UK. If the number is one
nominated under the Friends and Family scheme, the cost of the call will be
reduced by an extra 10 per cent.

Customers switching from rivals Telewest will save money every time they pick up
the phone, while savings will be made against the current rates of ntl and
One.Tel on all national calls lasting more than a minute. Thirty-minute and
one-hour national evening calls with One.Tel cost 78p and £1.53, compared with
just 6p under BT Together. And a single 10-minute national evening call using
Car Phone Warehouse costs 13 pence more.

Angus Porter, managing director of BT Retail's consumer division said: "We are
determined to be competitive and build on our position as the consumer champion
in fixed-line telephony. We have kept our market share constant for the past two
years in the face of increasing competition. This radical move provides the
simplicity and lower charges that will give customers stronger reasons than ever
to choose BT over any other company in the market.

"Claims by some competitors of savings over BT are often just plain misleading,
as they are based on comparisons with our standard rate, which is only for
customers for whom it would not be economic to be on a fixed call package.
Today's changes make it simpler for many customers to spot the real deal.



"Our offer of 6p for all evening and weekend calls up to an hour virtually
removes the need to compare our prices with other operators. What you see is
what you get, with no need to think about any other items like call connection
charges. Just consider that Telewest charges the same amount to connect a call
as BT Together customers will pay for an hour. And the cost of a good gossip,
say half-an-hour's chat with friends or relatives in another part of the UK at
the weekend, will be substantially cheaper with BT Together. With BT, that chat
will cost 6p, while British Gas will charge 45p, Carphone Warehouse, 57p, and
the Post Office, £1.08."

The existing BT Together options have been streamlined to give the company's 10
million existing customers three simple-to-understand options - each geared to
their level of phone use:

  • Option 1, the 6p hour plan - customers will pay a flat rate of 6p for up
    to an hour on all evening and weekend local and national calls. Daytime
    calls will be charged at 3p a minute, a 25 per cent saving on the previous
    price for national calls;
  • Option 2, the evening and weekend plan, offers the first hour for free on
    all evening and weekend local and national calls. The charges for daytime
    calls will be the same as for Option 1;
  • Option 3, the anytime plan, offers the first hour free on all UK calls at
    any time of day.

Each of the three options will have a fixed monthly fee that reflects the level
of usage. Option 1 will cost £11.50 a month; Option 2, £17.50 and Option 3,
£28.50.

The new options, which are to be introduced on June 1, are a direct response to
over a million BT customers who replied to the UK's biggest-ever survey of
customer opinion, which revealed a strong desire for lower, less-complicated
call charges and greater certainty over their phone bills.

Porter added: "We believe these three new options represent excellent
value-for-money and will not only be popular with our existing customers but
will attract large numbers of new customers to BT."

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Jon Carter, BT Retail press office          020 7356 4523

Mike Jarvis, BT Retail press office          020 7356 6045





Editors Notes:

BT Together's three new options: call rates will now depend on when you use your
phone, and not on where you are calling:


                           Monthly fee incl. rental   Daytime call rate         Evenings and Weekends call
                           of one line and VAT, with                            rate
                           Direct Debit or Monthly    8am-6pm
                           Payment Plan (otherwise £1                           6pm-8am Evenings and all
                           more)                                                Weekend (incl. VAT)

Option 1                   £11.50                     3p per minute             6p

The 6p hour plan                                      (5p minimum charge)       for up to an hour per call
                                                                                *
Option 2                   £17.50                     3p per minute             No charge

The Evening and Weekend                               (5p minimum charge)       for up to an hour per call
plan                                                                            *
Option 3                   £28.50                     No charge                 No charge

The anytime plan                                      for up to an hour per     for up to an hour per call
                                                      call**                    *

* Every minute over an hour for evening and weekend calls will be charged at 1p
per minute.

** Every minute over an hour for daytime calls under Option 3 will be charged at
3p per minute.

Customers can redial as often as they like.

The tables below show how costs compare for five minute, 30 minute and just
under one hour calls. As these tables show, none of the selected competitors can
beat BT Option 1 over all three call-duration periods.

Local Evening calls

Table shows cost of the     5mins          30mins         59mins 59secs  How many times BT is
call in pence for 3                                                      cheaper at the hour
different call lengths                                                   mark
BT Option 1                       6              6              6                 n/a
ntl                               15             65            125                 21
Telewest                          16             66            126                 21
One.Tel                           8              33             63                 11
SkyTalk                           5              30             60                 10
Carphone Warehouse                5              29             57                 9



Local Weekend calls

Table shows cost of the     5mins          30mins         59mins 59secs  How many times BT is
call in pence for 3                                                      cheaper at the hour
different call lengths                                                   mark
BT Option 1                       6              6              6                 n/a
ntl                               10             35             65                 11
Telewest                          11             36             66                 11
One.Tel                           8              33             63                 11
SkyTalk                           5              30             60                 10
Carphone Warehouse                5              29             57                 9

National Evening calls

Table shows cost of the     5mins          30 mins        59mins 59secs  How many times BT is
call in pence for 3                                                      cheaper at the hour
different call lengths                                                   mark
BT Option 1                       6              6              6                 n/a
ntl                               15             65            125                 21
Telewest                          16             66            126                 21
One.Tel                           16             78            153                 25
SkyTalk                           10             60            120                 20
Carphone Warehouse                10             57            114                 19

National Weekend calls

Table shows cost of the     5mins          30 mins        59mins 59secs  How many times BT is
call in pence for 3                                                      cheaper at the hour
different call lengths                                                   mark
BT Option 1                       6              6              6                 n/a
ntl                               10             35             65                 11
Telewest                          11             36             66                 11
One.Tel                           16             78            153                 25
SkyTalk                           5              30             60                 10
Carphone Warehouse                10             57            114                 19






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