BT Retail, the customer-facing part of the monster telco, has finally decided to pass on price cuts to its broadband consumers - cuts announced by BT's wholesale division last year.
The promo runs until the end of March and applies to punters signing up to the no-frills access-only BT Broadband service and the ISP product from BTopenworld.
From today, new punters will not have to pay a penny for activation for BT Broadband and BTopenworld. As well as free activation, BT is also offering a modem for £50. The offer also applies to business users, potentially saving them up to £260.
BT claims these promos - courtesy of BT Wholesale's decision to halve the cost of activation for the first three months of 2003 - will help build momentum for broadband take-up.
In a statement, Pierre Danon, BT Retail chief exec, said: "Today's announcement shows yet again that we at BT are serious about broadband. It is absolutely central to everything we do and we are committed to breaking down every barrier to adoption.
"We are also committed to making the choice of product as simple as possible for the consumer and that is why I have chosen to align the start up costs across our most popular products."
Of course, the most interesting part of today's news (as far as BT watchers are concerned) is the fact that it was put out under a single announcement.
Now that BTopenworld has been brought under the wing of Pierre Danon's BT Retail, it seems that BTopenworld has been relegated from a distinct standalone operation to just another BT brand. ®