BT to make EE its main brand

Two huge brands that everyone in the UK knows—BT and EE—are essentially one entity. That they are one and the same will now be widely publicised, as BT has announced that they plan to promote EE as the organisation’s consumer-facing brand.

This doesn’t mean BT is disappearing. The move is more of an admittance that landlines are no longer used by households throughout Britain in the way they once were. As a consequence, there’s not the same need for the BT brand anymore; focusing on EE and mobile phones, therefore, makes perfect sense for the company. The BT brand will continue for BT Sport, and BT Openreach will operate as normal.

The conglomerate will sell broadband through both BT and EE. You may wonder why they would bother doing this, but the move will make more sense in coming years. For starters, you may have noticed a new style of broadband promoted recently, with the claim that it’s ‘unbreakable’. This is because BT’s wi-fi now works in tandem with EE’s 5G network, to not only boost download/upload speeds, but to also guarantee connectivity at all times. I believe it’s this initiative that’s seen BT focus on its EE brand. (The parent group also owns Plusnet—its value brand—which will operate in the same way as before.)

EE was originally formed through a merger between France’s Orange and Germany’s T-Mobile, and it was bought by BT in 2016 for £12.5bn. At the time, the UKs largest broadband and landline provider also owned the UK’s second biggest mobile phone provider. Though I know of BT historically, EE seems the larger company, in my opinion. Personally, as someone on the precipice of my twenties, I’ve never used BT; however, I have been a customer of EE ever since its incarnation from Orange.