|
Yahoo! and BT Strike Far Reaching Broadband Agreement
Sunnyvale, Calif. and London, UK - February 12, 2003 - Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO), the world's number one Internet destination and the UK's leading Internet brand and BT, ae leading broadband provider in the United Kingdom, have teamed up to give BT Broadband customers access to an exciting new personalised Internet experience.
Yahoo! and BT will begin offering consumers a premium personalised Internet package including a bundle of premium products and services within the coming weeks. The service, called Yahoo! UK Plus, will deliver Internet "essentials" to BT Broadband customers, and includes an award-winning junk email control feature, Instant Messaging service, and essential family features such as multiple email accounts, parental controls, digital photo storage, and anti-virus software.
The companies also announced their intention to offer an additional Yahoo! experience for BT Broadband subscribers in the coming months . The new service will be specifically designed for the broadband household and builds upon Yahoo!'s highly successful DSL offering in the United States with SBC Communications. Yahoo! and BT believe that offering customers a built-for-broadband Internet experience will improve and enrich their interaction with the Internet and drive adoption of BT's broadband service.
Yahoo! and BT have committed to a multi-million pound cross-platform marketing campaign to promote the Yahoo! offerings along with broadband services from BT. The companies will embark upon a co-marketing campaign which will comprise both on and off-line advertising. It will encompass the promotion of the service on the special offers section of BT Broadband's re-designed homepage, a dedicated microsite, and extensive promotion across the Yahoo! network which reaches 42 percent of the Internet population in the UK .
Pierre Danon, chief executive officer for BT Retail, said: "As broadband lies at the centre of our strategic development, it is extremely important for us to partner with leading Internet companies like Yahoo!."
"We are extremely pleased to announce our partnership with BT. The launch of our services with BT is a clear demonstration of Yahoo!'s unique ability to tap into a broad set of premium services and content to create the most compelling experiences for customers,." said Terry Semel, chairman and CEO of Yahoo! Inc."With our more than 2.2 million unique paying relationships, we have been able to clearly demonstrate Yahoo!'s leadership in the premium services arena, and we are excited to build upon our momentum with this partnership."
The Yahoo! UK Plus suite of Internet products and services will comprise:
· Personalised portal experience
· 1 master e-mail account (with 25 MB storage) and anti-virus e-mail software*
· Up to 10 "family" sub-accounts
· Industry leading parental controls
· Firewall protection
· Full anti-virus software, including both email screening and subscription updates for entire computer
· 50 MB Photos and Briefcase storage
· Feature-rich Instant Messaging
· Customised browser toolbar
*Email functionality will include:
· Leading junk mail filter
· POP access & forwarding
· 10 MB message size (out/inbound)
· Local message back-ups
· Customised "from" and "reply to"
Media Contacts, for more information, please contact:
Yahoo! UK&Ireland (London)
Steve Fairbairn, Fleishman Hillard, Tel: (44)_20 7 395 7056, fairbais@fleishman.com
Yahoo! Inc.
Helena Maus, Tel: (408) 349 7085, helena@yahoo-inc.com
BT Broadband
Nancy Baynes, Tel: (44) 20 7 492 3211, nancy.baynes@bt.com
About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading provider of comprehensive online products and services to consumers and businesses worldwide and is the No. 1 Internet brand globally. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Yahoo!'s global network includes 25 World properties and is available in 13 languages.
About BT Broadband
BT Broadband provides "always-on", high-speed direct access to the internet over a home phone line, enabling users to download more content faster. A simple plug and play set up makes it easy for customers to install themselves. Over 100,000 customers have signed-up since the service launched in September 2002.
BT Broadband is £27 a month by Direct Debit or £28 otherwise. Free activation charge is available until March 31 2003. This represents a saving of £60. New subscribers will also be able to buy a broadband modem for just £50, a saving of £30. BT Broadband is compatible with most email services
including BT Openworld email.
Broadband is subject to availability and survey and requires a BT single PSTN telephone line. 12 months minimum term applies from date of activation. Broadband costs are in addition to normal PSTN line rental and voice/data call charges. Broadband is not availale to certain lines and services.
Minimum PC specification required.
BT Broadband will provide up to 512k internet access to the customer's computer and 64k to 256k from the customer's machine via a broadband connection, from where customers can access internet services. This speed is widely accepted as the current standard of broadband speed and is up to 10
times faster than PSTN.
BT Broadband is a mass-market consumer broadband product, designed for customers downloading up to 1 gigabyte of data a day. This would let you download either approximately 200 music tracks, 650 short videos, 10,000 pictures or around 100 large software programmes every day.
|
