BT throws in mobile broadband for businesses

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 20 Oct 2008 at 08:00

BT is giving away mobile broadband connections to customers on its business internet tariffs.

Customers who renew or take out new contracts on selected BT Business Total Broadband tariffs will be given a "free" mobile dongle and connection.

The service is based on Vodafone's 3G network - which boasted impressive speeds in our recent mobile broadband report - and comes with a relatively stingy download cap of 1GB. BT customers do, however, also receive 2,000 free minutes a month on BT's Openzone network of Wi-Fi hotspots.

In total, it means businesses can receive an ADSL broadband connection, mobile broadband and Wi-Fi from £27 a month. "We're adding value to our broadband offer at a time when businesses are up against it on costs," David Hughes, BT's director of wireless broadband told PC Pro. "It allows them to stay connected all the time."

Mobile performance

In our brief tests of the mobile broadband dongle, the BT device predictably matched the Vodafone dongle for speed. The BT software is well designed, with clear alerts when a higher speed Wi-Fi connection is available as an alternative to 3G.

Irritatingly, for a 3G network that boasts a headline speed of 7.2Mb/sec, BT has decided to turn on website image compression by default - which means the thumbnails on the BBC News homepage, for example, look horribly murky. Even more infuriatingly, BT's software doesn't give you the option of turning such compression off, unlike Vodafone's Mobile Connect.

The BT software currently only works on Windows PCs, although the company claims it working on support for Mac OS X.

Existing customers ignored?

The "free" mobile broadband deal is currently only open to businesses who renew or take out new deals on BT Business Total Broadband options 2 or 3. So what about the millions of business customers that BT has already signed up?

"We haven't got an upgrade package," Hughes admitted, although said the company would look into such an option.

BT's also decided to test the mobile broadband waters with businesses before looking further afield. "We've started with business - we'll look at whether it's suitable for consumers after that," said Neil Laidler, director of Mobility BT Business.