BT is exploring setting up a new budget mobile brand according to a new report in the FT.
Such a move would constitute a significant u-turn by the telecoms giant which ditched its more wallet-friendly BT Mobile and Plusnet Mobile services in favouring of focusing on its premium EE mobile offering.
The axing of those services were part of a wider plan to place EE at the centre of its consumer offering which also saw the rebadging of the TV service to EE TV and broadband customers encouraged to move their service to EE.
However, in recent months the firm has walked back from this strategy and has recommitted to using the BT brand in consumer services.
EE is one of the UK’s ‘big three’ mobile firms which own spectrum and masts. Like rivals O2 and VodafoneThree, it offers its own direct to consumer services but also sells wholesale access to its network to virtual operators which compete aggressively on price.
Unlike its rivals which own GiffGaff (O2) and Voxi and Smarty (VodafoneThree), EE has no budget offering of its own.
According to the FT, executives are mulling either buying an existing virtual operator and repurposing it for their own needs or establishing a new brand from scratch.