BT Mobile Review: SIM Only Deals With BT Sport, 5G Coverage & Family Discount

BT offers SIM-only mobile deals with inclusive BT Sport, 5G coverage from EE and Family SIM discounts. You’ll get a £5/month discount with BT Broadband.

In the UK, BT offers mobile phone SIM cards and handsets with access to 4G & 5G coverage from EE. You can get a BT Mobile SIM card from as little as £5/month, with a range of Family SIM offers and Pay Monthly phones also available from BT.

A key benefit of BT Mobile’s SIM-only deals is the inclusive access to the BT Sport app on plans from £15/month (or from £20/month if you’re not a BT Broadband customer). You can also get a £5/month discount if you’re a BT Broadband customer, along with double data if you have a BT Halo plan. There’s also a 20% discount when you take multiple SIM cards through BT’s Family SIM offer.

In this article, we’ll review the BT Mobile network. We’ll look at BT’s SIM-only deals including the key features available and how you can save with the multiple offers. We’ll also look at the coverage available on BT Mobile and how you can keep your current phone number when switching to BT Mobile.

BT Mobile Plans

In the UK, BT Mobile and EE sit alongside each other as different brands in the wider BT Group. You’ll get access to the same coverage on both networks, but with a slightly different focus (e.g. cheaper SIM-only deals are available on BT Mobile).

SIM Only Deals

One of the key advantages of choosing BT Mobile is the range of low cost SIM-only plans that they have available. BT’s SIM-only plans start from £5/month if you’re living in a BT Broadband household, or from £10/month if you’re using another broadband provider.

The following table shows BT Mobile’s SIM-only deals, available on a 24-month plan:

The prices shown in the table include a £5 monthly discount for BT Broadband customers. If you’re using a different broadband provider, you’ll need to add £5/month to the price.

If you want extra flexibility, BT also offers a range of shorter 12-month SIM-only deals. These start from £7/month for BT Broadband customers:

As before, you should add an extra £5/month to the prices shown above if you’re not a BT Broadband customer. At present, you can get a £100 reward card when you sign up to BT's Fibre 2 broadband. It may therefore be worthwhile getting BT’s fibre broadband service at the same time as signing up for BT Mobile.

See BT Mobile SIM Only Deals →

All of BT Mobile’s SIM-only deals now include access to 5G at no extra cost.

Family SIM

If you want multiple BT Mobile SIM cards (e.g. for different family members or for additional devices like a smartphone or tablet), you can get a 20% discount through BT’s Family SIM offer.

To give an example, you can start by choosing a primary SIM card that costs you £20/month. You can then add additional SIM cards to your account with a 20% discount on the price (e.g. you’ll only pay £16/month instead of £20/month for an additional SIM card with the same allowances).

The following image shows a worked example of how you can save money with the BT Family SIM offer:

In addition to saving 20% on the Family SIM cards from BT Mobile, you’ll get a combined bill for all of the SIM cards on one account. The additional SIM cards are also subject to a shorter 30-day rolling contract instead of the full 12 months or 24 months. This allows you to add or remove extra SIM cards at any time with more flexibility. You can also manage the parental controls and content settings on a per-SIM card basis.

You can use the interactive tool on BT’s website to see how much a Family SIM package will cost you.

Mobile Phones

If you’re looking for a new smartphone, BT also offers a range of mobile phones on a 24-month contract. They currently sell a number of 4G phones from manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, Google, Huawei, Oppo and Doro.

Unfortunately, it isn’t currently possible to get a 5G phone on BT Mobile. This is because they only sell 4G phones. If you’re looking for a 5G phone, BT will instead suggest that you get it from EE. When you buy selected 5G phones on an EE Smart plan, you’ll get the first 6 months at half price if you’re a BT Broadband customer.

For a full list of handsets offered by BT Mobile, please see the official BT website. As with BT’s SIM Only deals, you’ll get a £5/month discount on all handsets if you’re a BT Broadband customer. You can also get double data on mobile phone contracts if you have a BT Halo plan.

Pay As You Go

Unfortunately, BT Mobile doesn’t currently offer any Pay As You Go deals with no need for a credit check. If you’re looking for a Pay As You Go plan, you can get one from EE instead. EE is also a part of the wider BT Group.

For more information, see our guide to the UK’s best value Pay As You Go SIM cards.

BT Mobile Features

BT Sport App

If you choose a BT Mobile plan costing £15/month or more (£20/month or more if you’re not a BT Broadband customer), you’ll get inclusive access to the BT Sport app on your mobile phone. This allows you to watch all of the BT Sport channels, as well as watching on-demand action from the UEFA Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup and more.

You can register for your inclusive access to the BT Sport app through this page on BT’s website.

The inclusive BT Sport mobile app access doesn’t cover your data usage through the application. This will still count as normal towards the download limit on your plan. It also won’t allow you to watch BT Sport on other devices such as your TV or laptop.

If you’d like to watch BT Sport on the big screen, see our guide to the best BT Sport deals.

BT Broadband Discount

If you have a BT Broadband connection in your home, you’ll get a £5 per month discount on all BT Mobile plans. This includes on SIM-only deals, Family SIM and Pay Monthly phones. It isn’t necessary to be the BT Broadband bill payer to get this discount – you just need to live at an address that has BT Broadband installed.

You can qualify for the £5 per month discount with any of BT’s home broadband plans. This includes standard broadband, fibre broadband and full fibre broadband.

If you have BT Business Broadband set up at your address, you won’t qualify for the £5 discount as you need to have a consumer broadband plan. Instead, you can look at BT’s Business Mobile service instead.

Double Data with Halo

If you have BT’s flagship Halo broadband service, you’ll get double data on all SIM-only and Pay Monthly plans from BT Mobile. For instance, you’ll get whereas other BT Broadband customers will only get .

The following table shows some of the double data deals that are available exclusively to BT Halo customers:

If you’re a BT Broadband customer without BT Halo, check online to see how much it will cost you to upgrade. According to BT, an upgrade to Halo might be available from as little as £1/month. This will give you access to Home Tech Experts and BT’s Keep Connected Promise. If you choose BT’s Halo 3+ plan, you’ll also get Hybrid Connect, the Complete Wi-Fi service and BT’s Full Fibre Promise.

Unlimited Data with Halo

If you’re a BT Halo customer, you’ll also have access to an exclusive unlimited data plan on BT Mobile. Available from £20 per month, it gives you unlimited data with uncapped download speeds on 5G. You’ll get inclusive access to the BT Sport app with it, along with unlimited UK calls on your BT home phone.

According to BT, there’s no fair usage limit for unlimited data in the UK. BT says “it truly is unlimited”.

For more information, see our guide to unlimited data on BT Mobile. You can also read our full overview of unlimited data plans in the UK.

Free BT Wi-Fi

Customers joining BT Mobile will also receive unlimited access to BT Wi-Fi hotspots (previously known as BT Openzone).

There are currently more than 5 million BT Wi-Fi hotspots across the UK. This makes BT Wi-Fi one of the most extensive wi-fi network providers in the UK. Locations with a BT Wi-Fi hotspot include shopping centres, train stations, cafés, restaurants, service stations and more. You can enter your postcode on the BT Wi-Fi website to find nearby hotspots.

A typical standalone subscription to BT Wi-Fi would cost you £15/month on a 12 month contract.

Network & Coverage

2G, 3G & 4G Coverage From EE

As a customer of BT Mobile, you’ll have access to EE’s 2G, 3G and 4G networks in the UK. This will give you 99% population coverage, with a signal available from BT Mobile in the same places a signal is available from EE.

Before you sign up for a BT Mobile plan, it’s worth double-checking the coverage in your area. You can do this by entering your postcode on BT Mobile’s online coverage map:

Check BT Mobile Coverage (bt.com) →

For more information, see our full guide to EE’s mobile network and coverage.

5G Coverage

If you have a 5G-ready plan on BT Mobile, you’ll also be able to access 5G coverage in 160 UK towns and cities. Like their 2G, 3G and 4G coverage, BT Mobile’s 5G service is also powered by EE’s network.

You can access 5G coverage at no extra cost on all of the following plans from BT Mobile:

• BT Mobile SIM-only deals taken out since the 1st September 2020.
• Family SIM deals taken out since the 13th November 2020.
• 5G Pay Monthly phones purchased on contract from BT Mobile prior to September 2020.

At present, 5G coverage is available in the following UK towns and cities:

Check 5G Coverage on BT Mobile →

For more information, see our guide to 5G on BT Mobile. Alternatively, see our overview of 5G coverage in the UK.

Tethering & Personal Hotspot

Tethering or personal hotspot refers to the process of sharing your smartphone’s internet connection with another device (e.g. with your laptop or tablet). It’s often used as a convenient way to get mobile broadband on your other devices, without the need to take out a separate price plan and device.

On BT Mobile, the use of tethering and personal hotspot has been permitted since June 2016. This means you can use tethering and personal hotspot functionality to share your BT Mobile data allowance with other devices.

International Coverage

On BT Mobile, it’s possible to use your SIM card abroad through the international roaming service.

If you’re travelling to one of 47 European Roam Like Home destinations, you can use your normal BT Mobile allowances at no extra cost. This includes your allowances of minutes, texts and mobile data (up to a maximum of 50GB per month).

If you’re travelling to Andorra, Australia, Canada, China, India, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates or the USA, you can pay £6/day for a BT Mobile Travel Data Pass. This gives you 500MB of data to use over a 24-hour period.

For more information, see the international roaming rates as detailed on the BT Mobile website.

Keeping Your Phone Number

If you’re changing from another mobile network to BT Mobile, it’s a straightforward process keeping your current phone number.

Start by asking your current mobile network to provide you with a PAC Code. You can normally get one online through your mobile network’s website or app, or by texting PAC to 65075.

Once you’ve gotten a PAC Code from your old mobile network, order your new SIM-only deal from the BT website. You can either give the PAC Code to BT when you sign up online or after your new BT Mobile service goes live. Once you’ve given the PAC Code to BT, your phone number transfer will normally be scheduled for the next working day.

For step-by-step instructions on how to transfer your phone number to BT Mobile, please select your current mobile network from the drop-down menu below:

Frequently Asked Questions

More Information

For more information, please see the official BT Mobile website. You can also read our in-depth guides to 5G on BT Mobile and BT’s unlimited data plan.