LCR, BT Call Rates & Cheap Calls using VOIP
Times are hard for British Business, financial institutions are folding on a weekly basis and consumers are tightening purse strings, yet BT the UK telecoms giant seems to be making hay with large annual increases in connection fees, setup costs & line rentals.
During September 08 BT line rentals were 12.23GBP for PSTN & 15.92GBP for ISDN. Whilst there are good deals available from LCR operators, the best deal appears to be 1.50 pcm per SIP or IAX channel with unlimited outbound lines on a 3 month contract to Gradwell.
BT ISDN2 connection charge has risen to 299GBP which is an increase of 25% to the same time last year. With 80 connection charge per channel on ISDN 30, BT paves the way for VOIP Telecom providers & LCRs many of whom offer free connection without lengthy tie-ins.
Hidden charges such as minimum call fees are not always transparent in published call pricing information. BT has a 6p call setup fee which is due to increase on the 16th September 08 to an astonishing 7p. BT says these fees are in line with their competition – although I am not sure as to who they are referring? VOIP service providers charge 1.5p – 2p minimum call fee, no setup charges and per second billing – I guess BT doesn’t consider these operators as a competitors.
UK mobile rates vary from 8p per minute through LCRs on long term contract and large minimum spend to BT’s 19p standard rate. Minute rates to national numbers vary from 0.8p to BT’s 4p. UK ITSPs appear to be the most competitive again with minute rates of 9-11p to mobiles & 1.25-1.5p to landlines, without any long term or spend commitment.
Call plans such as BT ‘Oneplan’ offer 5p capped calls to landlines & 20p capped calls to mobiles. To qualify for this plan you will need 2 other BT services on a 2 year contract. A survey of 2 million calls carried out by Telecost suggests that the average call length to mobile is 110 seconds and an average call to landline is 112 seconds. This service is therefore more suitable to companies that make longer than average length calls.
Just one last thing – companies that have phone systems which support GSM gateways may achieve mobile minute rates of 1.47p & free office to staff mobile calls. This by far is the most efficient way of running corporate telecoms but requires prior agreement from the mobile network & some setup costs.
To migrate your telecoms to VOIP ITSPs you will need the following:
– BT 21CN compliant telephone system
– reliable internet service
– necessary upstream to cope with call requirement
– structured cabling and IP phones
– advice from an experienced professional with good track record
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