BT gets back into mobile with a trio of SIM-only 4G plans

It’s already been quite the week for the UK’s mobile battleground, with Three UK’s owner Hutchison Whampoa announcing its plan to acquire O2 for a cool £10 billion. And today, confirming recent rumours, BT is ready to re-enter mobile ten years after offloading its shares in O2 and getting out of the game. BT is pursuing its own, mammoth acquisition of EE, of course, but while it waits on regulatory approval, it’s tapping EE’s network under an MVNO agreement penned way back in 2013. BT is now part of the quad-play club, and like fellow members Virgin Media and TalkTalk, it’s going after the price-conscious consumer with a trio of SIM-only plans.

Staying out of the messy business of subsidized handsets (for now at least), BT’s starting out with a light buffet of three different 12-month contracts, detailed in the table below.

The £25 per month tariff is particularly alluring, with a whopping 20GB 4G data cap, but the most basic plan can also be had for as little as £5 per month if you’re already a BT Broadband customer. Because what’s the point of being a quad-play provider if you can’t use discounts to push other products? Broadband customers can also add up to five discounted mobile plans to a single bill, in case the whole family needs kitting out. Minutes, texts and data aren’t all you get for your monthly spend, mind, with access to BT’s network of five million WiFi hotspots and free BT Sport available through its mobile app. The provider is also keen to mention it offers parental controls, monthly spending caps, and the ability to move freely between tariffs without having to renew your contract.

For now, BT is starting out by dipping its toe back into mobile with a manageable portfolio of 12-month, SIM-only plans. “The announcement is the first step in BT’s consumer mobile strategy, which will develop over the coming years,” the announcement states. Things are likely to develop more rapidly when/if BT completes its acquisition of EE, but no doubt the new quad-play provider is keeping a keen eye on the competition. With Three UK’s owner out to acquire O2, Sky set to become the next quad-play provider by launching its own mobile offering, and Vodafone getting into the broadband business again and possibly TV, the foreseeable future will be chock-full of change. Hopefully to the benefit of us lot looking for a cheap package that covers all our needs.

Filed under: Wireless, Mobile

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Source: BT (1), (2)

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Here’s another high-speed 3D printer that creates objects in minutes

If Carbon3D’s capability to print out objects 25 to 100 times faster than usual is the reason why you can’t wait for it to come out, then you’ll love this machine, as well. An Australian company has announced that it’s also working on a super speedy 3D printer called Gizmo 3D. It creates objects out of liquid resin using a method that prints layers from the top to the bottom without breaks. This occurs within the vat of liquid resin itself: the build plate or the bottom of the vat was designed to slide downward, revealing more of the shape as its moves.

The process makes it look like items are being animated in real life instead of being printed out, as you can see in the video below. It takes the printer only 6 minutes to create an object that measures 5 inches x 3 inches using this technique. Gizmo 3D founder Kobus Toit is keeping the full details of his technology under wraps, though. He wants to wait until his Kickstarter campaign has launched in September to reveal the printer’s secrets. When the device does land on the crowdfunding website, you’ll have to pony up at least $2,500 for the most basic model, or at least $6,000 for the fancier one.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: 3Dprint