UK Consumers Show Interest in Mobile and Home Broadband Bundles

LONDON - Oct. 13, 2014 - PRLog -- A new survey of 699 ISPreview.co.uk readers in the United Kingdom, which was conducted during September 2014, has suggested that BT's plan to re-enter the country's mobile communications market with a new service for domestic consumers, which might also be followed by a similar proposition from BSkyB (Sky Broadband), may indeed be attractive to a modest number of potential customers; but it probably won't reshape the landscape.

The survey found that just 8% of respondents currently get their mobile and fixed line home broadband service from the same provider and, when asked whether an Internet Service Provider (ISP) would be more attractive if it could also offer a competitive mobile service alongside home broadband, some 25% answered "Yes" and 31% responded with a "Maybe", yet 45% said "No".

Respondents were also specifically asked whether they were interested in the possibility of Sky and BT adding a consumer mobile product to complement the operators existing home broadband, phone and TV services. The result reported that 16.5% would be interested, while 25% remain undecided and 58% simply said "No".

"Over the next 6-12 months we expect to see BT, possibly followed by Sky, re-entering the domestic mobile communications market and our survey suggests that there's clearly some interest among consumers for related services and quad-play bundles," said ISPreview.co.uk's Founder, Mark Jackson. "But BT will need to tread carefully. Both O2 and Vodafone have previously tried and failed to complement their primary mobile services by adding a home broadband product, which suggests that BT could be at risk making similar mistakes by attempting to do it the other way around."

"On the other hand both Virgin Media and TalkTalk have been able to make a modest success out of offering both mobile and home broadband products, albeit perhaps arguably more as a tool for reducing customer bleed (churn). By comparison, and with the noted exception of EE, major mobile operators like Three UK, Vodafone and O2 do not have their own home broadband product."

"Crucially BT will need to learn the lessons of Vodafone and O2's prior failures. In particular both operators, in attempting to break into the home broadband market, ended up either neglecting the service after the first few years or altering the product too far away from what originally made it attractive. BT must avoid the same fate befalling their forthcoming mobile service, which it could achieve by ensuring that the service stays competitive with rivals and targeting their perceived advantage in data delivery," concluded Jackson.