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.
BT line rentals today vary from £12.23GBP per PSTN line, £15.92GBP per ISDN channel on a one year contract. VOIP service providers have widened the price gap with SIP line rentals of £1.50 per month per trunk with unlimited outbound channels on a 3 month contract.
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.
As of September 08 BT has increased it's call setup fee to 7p which means that unless you have opted for a call plan or switched to LCR, you will be paying 7p for connection before you start your call. Many telecoms companies charge a minimum of one minute whilst UK VOIP providers lead the pack with minimum call charges of 1.5p - 2p & per second billing.
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.
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.
Companies that are thinking of switching to VOIP will need the following:
- SIP or IAX ready phone system
- reliable internet service
- sufficient bandwidth to insure high quality calls
- Any SIP phones such as Cisco, Snom or Aastra
- advice from an experienced professional with good track record - 15224
BT line rentals today vary from £12.23GBP per PSTN line, £15.92GBP per ISDN channel on a one year contract. VOIP service providers have widened the price gap with SIP line rentals of £1.50 per month per trunk with unlimited outbound channels on a 3 month contract.
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.
As of September 08 BT has increased it's call setup fee to 7p which means that unless you have opted for a call plan or switched to LCR, you will be paying 7p for connection before you start your call. Many telecoms companies charge a minimum of one minute whilst UK VOIP providers lead the pack with minimum call charges of 1.5p - 2p & per second billing.
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.
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.
Companies that are thinking of switching to VOIP will need the following:
- SIP or IAX ready phone system
- reliable internet service
- sufficient bandwidth to insure high quality calls
- Any SIP phones such as Cisco, Snom or Aastra
- advice from an experienced professional with good track record - 15224
About the Author:
The author is an established business telecoms consultant and specialist in Voip Phone Systems. Please check out cheap calls for the latest UK telecoms price comparisons & call rates.
