1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152 
Is there really anybody out there that doesn'twant to cut
Page 44
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
down their phone bill? Chishows you how best to do it...
ritain is the most expensive country in Europe for making telephone calls through the dominant operator Compared with the cost of local, national and long distance calls in the EU, according to new research by the European Commission.
UK costs for long-distance calls are two-thirds more than the EU average, What this research appears to ignore, and what many businesses may be overlooking, are the many special deals and regional offers becoming available to cut the cost of companies phone bills.
Savings offer
For example, BT's latest savings offer— the BT Business Plan—claims that no UK call need cost a business more than 10p, even if it lasts up to an hour. For local and national calls under 10p there is a new low pence-per-minute rate as well as a low set-up fee of 2p per call. Overseas calls will cost 3p (USA) and 5p and 7p to Europe and Canada, Japan, Australia and Hong Kong. Customers must guarantee at least a £500 per annum call bill for each Slte ... provided they meet this there is a 5% reward credit after 12 months.
Even once high-cost international calls can now cost less than 2p per minute for Germany and Italy and 3p to Span, USA, Canada and Australia by using the Internet telephone operated by Callserve, the European Internet telephone company. You deposit 210 from your credit card—there are no hidden fees or charges—and it is easy to check how much credit has been used and how much remains.
Kingston Communications offers a 20% discount scheme for business cus
tomers spending £1,200 per annum upwards. Customers spending over £8,000 yearly on out-of-area calls are eligible for a 30% discount. In both cases there is a modest fee for joining the scheme.
North West Telecommunications and Internet Services claims to cut business phone bills by up to 63% on standard BT charges with a Call Saver scheme—for example 2.25p for local calls compared with BT's 3.36p, and for national calls 2.5p against BT's 6.73p.
The two options for companies joining NWT's Saver Programme are: (1) plugging a small box into an existing wall socket which automatically dials an access code that reroutes calls through to the NWT network; or (2) joining its Carrier Pre-selection scheme and keeping an existing phone number, with calls re-routed to the NWT network.
Service overview For an overview of telecom services, products and costs it is worth checking TelecomAdvice, an independent website for small UK businesses looking for information. TelecomAdvice is endorsed by Oftel but independent of government It's sponsored by many of the main telecom companies such as 8T Kingston Telewest, N&L, 02 and Cable 8i, Wireless. Advice is intended to be practical, impartial and balanced. Typical questions dealt with by Telecom Advice include: 'How can I compare different telecom companies' prices?" 1 am not happy with the service provided by my telecoms supplier. What can I do?"
Oftel operates a Price Assurance Standard scheme to help telecom users compare prices of the wide range of tele corns services on offer. It also has a code of practice with a PASS award for telecom companies complying with the code. This stipulates, for example, that prices and price comparisons must be accurate and up-to-date.
Many companies now use external consultants/actvisers to analyse their telecom systems in order to achieve cost reduction, rationaiisation, facilities management or to assess new technology. Often outside specialists can save money by changing tariffs. A client of one specialist firm reports that: "Within ten hours of our contacting them, they put the company's communications strategy on a new footing and have since saved us £6,000 per year".
Hiring outside specialists can pay dividends where a business lacks expertise in telecoms and needs impartial advice and ammunition to negotiate the best deals available.
• by Wilt Altman