The rumours were true: BT has gone for another bite of the dual mode cherry, using an HTC smartphone, pictured here, called the BT ToGo. The dual-mode device will come bundled as part of BT’s Total Broadband Anywhere package – which covers home broadband, as well as mobile minutes, texts and 10 MB of mobile data. The phone itself will be free, and depending on how many minutes the customer signs up to, and the mobile subscription will cost between £5 and £35 extra on top of a standalone broadband option.
The problem with this, as far as I can see, is that this sort of thing screams enterprise, rather than consumer. For companies with large campuses and a lot of mobile workers, this could easily be a good fit. For consumers, however, I’m not so sure: after all, broadband tends to be bought by a household, and mobile phone contracts by the individual. There doesn’t seem to be any interesting new services being offered, so presumably the inclusion of VoIP capability is just being pitched as a cost-saving service: but with very generous mobile packages – up to 600 inclusive minutes – you could go without using the VoIP part of the service altogether.