Best UK Telephone Service Providers vs BT’s Capped Call Rates
BT the UK’s largest telecoms provider is singing the praises of ‘capped calls’ and selling call plans on the basis of the savings these deals seem to offer - are these capped deals really that good or is this a financial smoke screen?.
Trying to gather call rate information for this task was rather awkward to say the least - BT’s website and search facility seemed to make this task ‘difficult’ to say the least. In my experience the best way to do this is call.
The next task was to establish UK’s average call length. Telecost performed a study in 2002 of 100 UK businesses ranging from high users such as call centres to small enterprises at variuos locations. Over 2 million calls were analysed with results as shown below:
Average length of call to mobile (07 numbers) - 110 seconds.
Average length of call to landline (01 numbers) - 112 seconds.
Average length of call to landline (02 numbers) - 121 seconds.
I am therefore going to assume that the average call length is 2 minutes hence:
A 2 Minute call through BT Standard Rate to mobile would cost 45p and to landline would cost 15p (inc call setup fee).
A 2 Minute call through BT’s ‘Business Plan’ to mobile would cost 25p (capped) and to landline would cost 8p on a 1 year contract.
A 2 Minute call through BT’s Oneplan to mobile would cost 20p (capped) and to landline would cost 5p (capped) on a 2 year contract with 2 additional services as a requirement.
A 2 minute call through Westlake to mobile would cost 18p and to landline would cost 2.5p on a one year contract.
A 2 minute mobile call using Midland LCR to mobile is 16p and a 2 minute landline call is 1.8p on a 1 year contract with a minimum call spend requirement.
A 2 minute mobile call using Gradwell VOIP would cost 20p and a 2 minute landline call would be free (on all inclusive tarif) with 3 month contract.
Based on the above information above being correct the conclusion therefore is:- if your business makes average length calls then LCR or VOIP providers offer you the best overall call savings. If your bunsiness makes long phone calls on a regular basis then BT will be the better choice, but then…
To benefit from maximum call savings customers should consider using smart phone systems such as Asterisk which will can be programmed to take the most efficient route. For example: - you can route all national calls through VOIP hence take advantage of free calls and unlimited outbound trunks hence make instant savings on your line rentals, route mobile calls through GSM - hence achieve free calls to staff mobiles & mobile tarifs of 4.5p & use BT Oneplan to route long calls.
This article is merely a guide to help UK businesses make up their own minds - the call rates were obtained in Sept 08 hence may or may not be accurate at the time of reading.
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