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.
Some BT connection charges have increased by 25% to £299GBP for ISDN2, a high price for turning on a switch. BT is somewhat flexible on connection fees should the customer be willing to enter into a call plan or a long term agreement. VOIP phone service providers don’t appear to charge connection fees at all.
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.
BT ‘Oneplan’ offers 1 hour capped calls to mobiles & landlines at 20p & 5p respectively. This offer is good value if your business makes higher than average length calls, however customers will be tied into a 2 year deal & will need 2 additional BT services to quality. According to Telecost the average call lengh is less than 2 minutes and therefore would cost you less on good per minute deals.
In order to make serious savings on telecoms companies should insure that their phone systems are GSM ready. By integrating GSM gateways UK companies can achieve free office to staff mobile calls and 1.47p minute rate to any mobile network with a little development & negotiation.
To migrate your telecoms to VOIP ITSPs you will need the following:
- BT 21CN compliant telephone system
- reliable internet service
- sufficient bandwidth to insure high quality calls
- ip telephones
- consult a telecoms professional with a good references in VOIP telecoms
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