BT Launches BT ToGo Low-Cost Smartphones

The UK's BT Group has re-entered the mobile market with two BT ToGO BlackBerry-style smartphones made by HTC.

The UK’S BT Group has been one of the only large European telecommunications companies that did not own a mobile network, after it spun off its mobile operations back in 2001. Now, the former telco monopoly is again trying to re-enter the mobile market with BT Total Broadband Anywhere, an all-inclusive service plan that comes with an HTC S620 or S710 smartphone, rebranded as BT ToGo.

"Communications services are converging, and it is clear that customers want consistent access to the things that matter not only at home, but in the palm of their hands wherever they are," said BT managing director for consumer products John Petter, in a statement." When shopping, waiting for a train, or having a coffee, Broadband Anywhere enables you to read emails, check the football score, or compare prices."

The BT Total Broadband package starts at £23.99 per month to 50 minutes of talk time and 50 text messages, running up to £53.99 for 600 minutes and 700 text messages; both come with 10 MB of GPRS data downloads. Those might seem like unworkably small limits for heavy Internet users, but the BT ToGo phones also offer integrated Wi-Fi and VoIP calling capability through BT Broadband Talk, and the ability to connect to more than 82,000 FON hotspots in the UK and another 190,000 FON hotspots around the world (in addition to BT’s own 2,500 hotspots in the UK and Ireland). The pricing plans also integrate with other BT broadband services, including wireless hubs and VoIP phones for the home.

Both BT ToGo handsets feature integrated cameras and full QWERTY keyboards. The S710 sports a 2.4-inch LCD display, a 2 megapixel camera, 64 MB of RAM, Bluetooth 2.0, and microSD storage, and Windows Mobile 6, while the S620 uses Windows Mobile 5 and offers a 1.3 megapixel camera.

BTis undoubtedly hoping that offering the BT ToGo Smartphones with broadband packages will go over better than its somewhat poorly-received BT Fusion, which paired a mobile phone with a Wi-Fi based VoIP in-home base station, so callers weren’t using the mobile network when placing calls from home. Although simple to use, the service received a great deal of criticism since free VoIP solutions like Skype were widely available for broadband users.