BT’s EE unveils its super app

• EE is the consumer services brand of UK telco BT
• It is seeking to reinvent itself to become more than just a connectivity provider
• The ‘new EE’ has developed a super app that provides access to a broad range of services and products, all hanging around a user ID
• And it can be used by anyone, not just EE customers
• The move is right out of the digital service provider (DSP) playbook, but isn’t yet common among mobile service providers

Telcos have long been slowly sinking in an existential swamp, wondering how to extricate themselves from their legacy business models that offer little beyond a fixed and/or mobile connection. EE, the consumer brand of UK national operator BT, has spied a way out of that swamp via a super app lifeline. 

A super app provides a user simple access to multiple services (communications, e-commerce, entertainment and so on) via one secure log-in – in this case, the EE ID that the service provider is launching this week. In its announcement today about the “new EE”, the company’s executives didn’t use the term super app, but that’s essentially what it has developed. 

It makes a lot of sense for EE and, in fact, any mobile service provider that sells connectivity packages and smartphones but isn’t the brand that its connectivity customers engage with every day to access the services they use in their personal and working lives.

EE’s messaging around this move is that it is becoming a much bigger and broader subscription business: Via the EE ID digital platform, it will enable consumers to access a broad range of entertainment services from EE and multiple partners – it has a heavy focus on gaming – and enable them to buy a range of consumer electronics products, offering the same kind of financing and insurance services that it already offers EE customers who buy a smartphone alongside their mobile services.       

For those in the UK, there’s a lot to take in. EE is making a big push to be seen not only as an excellent mobile service provider but also as a leading fixed broadband provider (using Openreach fibre connectivity of course) and is taking steps to up its game in this area too by focusing as much on in-home connectivity as well as the speed and reliability of the broadband connection to the premises. For home WiFi it has been working with two partners: For in-home application and traffic management it is teaming up with network intelligence software specialist Cujo AI; while UK startup Netduma is providing functionality that will enable EE broadband customers to instantly boost their broadband speed to support bandwidth-hungry services, such as cloud gaming. 

You can get all the details about what EE is pitching and offering in this press release and this brand announcement.

What’s more telling for the industry is EE’s strategic approach to making itself more relevant, visible and important to users, and how it is extending its reach beyond its existing customer base of about 25 million. The super app approach is not new and seems like an obvious move for mobile operators, but it isn’t an approach taken by many (as yet). EE, then, can pride itself on being in the vanguard (if not the first – we’ll come to that). And of course this all hinges on whether the app, and the approach, resonates with the UK public and actually works in the way EE expects it to. 

It’s taken a while to get to this point, noted EE’s chief Marc Allera (pictured above). “This is an example of what a telco will be in the future,” he added, explaining that the new platform is an open one, which will enable external partners to plug into it. To get to this point EE has had to “pull apart our technology and our model,” he added.

EE’s chief digital officer, Kevin Lee, explained that the EE ID has been developed on the Microsoft Azure cloud using the cloud giant’s security functions and has been separated from all existing legacy customer relationship management (CRM) platforms so that EE ID users can connect to any third-party partner via the app. 

So the EE team believes it has its back-office IT and security systems in place, has content and product partners in place, and is now ready to put itself at the heart of UK consumers’ daily lives.      

And it’s a good approach to take, according to industry analysts.   

Paolo Pescatore, analyst and founder of PP Foresight, described today’s announcement as a “significant moment for BT, the new EE, Marc Allera and UK consumers”. 

“This is a bold, ambitious plan that has been years in the making. Consumer behavioural patterns have changed, and it is about time telcos evolve. This latest revolutionary move represents a radical and fundamental shift in thinking and approach in the way a telco operates. In essence, the new EE aspires to be more – a broader tech and services retailer underpinned by connectivity,” he added.

So, a good idea, but this also puts EE in direct competition with major retailers, which will now see it as a threat in a cash-strapped economy, noted Pescatore. And “ultimately, it is all about execution, the achilles heel for telcos. However, this feels different. The launch will be supported by an extensive marketing campaign where everyone will see the new EE numerous times across all channels.” 

Pescatore concluded that, “Strategically, this puts the new EE in pole position compared to its traditional telco rivals. Others have their own challenges and will fall further adrift given the need to be more flexible and agile in a radically converged and cut-throat marketplace. This will force them to accelerate their own efforts, platforms, mindset and strategic vision.”

Kester Mann, director of consumer and connectivity at CCS Insight, is also positive about EE’s strategy, if a little less bullish. “EE’s grand plan is to bolster its relevance among customers and stir greater engagement, particularly via its app. Today is an important step along that journey, but the company will be under no doubt that creating a new brand identity is a challenging and time-consuming endeavour,” he noted. 

“The new areas of focus for EE make sense. Gaming, insurance and security don’t stray too far from its core connectivity roots, unlike riskier industry forays into sports rights and financial services, many of which have been unsuccessful,” added the analyst. 

 “Today’s update won’t quell mounting questions over whether telecom operators can monetise their networks, compete with big technology companies and rejuvenate financial performance. But EE at least appears to recognise its challenges and the changes outlined feel like a step in the right direction,” concluded Mann.

And it’s a step that, so far, is unusual in the telco community, though not unique. In Japan, Rakuten is attempting to do something similar, though it has been building customer loyalty across multiple digital services for some time and only relatively recently added communications services through the launch of the greenfield operator Rakuten Mobile, an approach that has yet to be proven successful. 

More directly comparable to EE’s approach, notes PP Foresight’s Pescatore, is the super app strategy already underway in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where e& (Etisalat) and du have already adopted the approach. “The UAE telcos are ahead of the game,” noted the analyst via WhatsApp from Dubai in the UAE, where he was using the e& app while attending the Gitex technology show. 

So EE appears to be on the right track and, to its credit, is doing something and acting like a digital service provider (DSP) rather than a traditional telco. Let’s see if the super app becomes a ‘thing’ among the global mobile operator community as their DSP strategies mature.

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV