| LCR, BT Call Rates & Cheap Calls using VOIP |
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As the 'credit crunch' strikes down even more corporate victims & consumer spending hits an all time low, outlook looks bleak for many British businesses, except for British Telecom the UK largest communications company who has increased call setup fees, line rentals & call charges.
Monthly line rentals for BT PSTN, ISDN2 & ISDN30 services vary from 12GBP to 15GBP on a minimum 12 month agreement, up on same time last year. UK VOIP ITSP Gradwell offers a good alternative to companies who are ready for SIP or IAX services with monthly line rental of 1.50 per trunk and unlimited outbound channels on a 3 month contract.
A telecoms industry favourite money spinner is the connection fee which has not escaped the recent price hikes with some BT connection charges up 25% to £299GBP(ISDN2) on last year. BT's usual strategy is to offer free or reduced connection fees for customers willing to enter into long term agreements or call plans. UK VOIP telecoms providers answered back with free connection to all services and contract lengths of 1 to 3 months.
Many VOIP telephone providers & low cost routing operators charge a minimum call fee, this varies from as little as 1.5p with per second billing to 1 minute minimum fee. As from this month BT is charging 7p to connect for customers who have not to entered into any call plan agreement - an increase of 14% to the same time last year
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.
Those companies who are thinking of migrating telecoms to VOIP will need the following:
- BT 21CN compliant telephone system
- reliable internet service
- adequate bandwidth to carry the required number of simultaneous calls.
- Any SIP phones such as Cisco, Snom or Aastra
- advice from an experienced professional with good track record |