The UK telecoms giant BT is selling of capped calls as a part of its business strategy- but are 'capped calls' really offering good value to the customer? I made it my task to find out:
The problem with trying to decide if BT's deals are good or bad is the difficulty in obtaining information - BT's website does not seem to give call rates up easiliy - their pricelist points visitors to 58 mult-page documents hence, information is not made easy to find. The helpless search utility provided also proved equally challenging at delivering any form of reasonable data - email contact also proved tough hence calling was best way.
Armed with call rates call rates for BT & a few other telecoms prividers, I had to to establish the average call length - BT were not forthcomming with this information. Luckily for me Telecost performed this task in 2002 - they studied the phone records of 100 companies around the UK in various industry sectors. In total some 2 million records were analysed - of course some time has gone by and without a bigger study it is difficult to be certain - but here are the results:
Average length of call to mobile (07 numbers) - 110 seconds.
Average length of landline call (01 numbers) - 112 seconds.
Average length of call to landline (02 numbers) - 121 seconds.
Therefore, if the average call length is approximately 2 minutes then the following is also true:
A 2 minute call on BT Standard Rate to mobile is 45p and to landline is 15p inc BT's call setup fee.
A 2 minute mobile call using BT's 'Business Plan' is 25p (capped) and a 2 minute landline call is 8p on a 1 year contract.
A 2 minute call on BT's 'Oneplan' to mobile is 20p(capped) and to landline is 5p(capped) on a 2 year contract with 2 extra BT services required.
A 2 minute call through Westlake LCR to mobile would cost 18p and to landline would cost 2.5p on a one year contract.
A 2 minute mobile call using Midland LCR to mobile is 16p and a 2 minute landline call is 1.8p on a 1 year contract with a minimum call spend requirement.
A 2 minute call using Gradwell VOIP to mobile would cost 20p and a 2 minute call to landline would be free(subject to acceptable usage otherwise would cost 2.5p) on a 3 month contract.
The conclusion therefore is:- if your business makes average length calls then you are probably better off with LCR or VOIP, however if your business calls are typically long then BT offers good value, however...
To benefit from maximum call savings customers should consider using voip phone systems such as Asterisk which will can be programmed to take the most efficient route. For example: - you can route all national calls through VOIP hence take advantage of free calls and unlimited outbound trunks and make savings on your line rentals, you can route mobile calls through GSM - hence achieve free calls to staff mobiles & mobile tarifs of 1.45p 4.5p - use BT Oneplan to route long calls.
Call rates in this report were obtained in Sept 08 - some of the information above may or may not be accurate at the time you read this article hence this information should be treated as a yardstick.
The problem with trying to decide if BT's deals are good or bad is the difficulty in obtaining information - BT's website does not seem to give call rates up easiliy - their pricelist points visitors to 58 mult-page documents hence, information is not made easy to find. The helpless search utility provided also proved equally challenging at delivering any form of reasonable data - email contact also proved tough hence calling was best way.
Armed with call rates call rates for BT & a few other telecoms prividers, I had to to establish the average call length - BT were not forthcomming with this information. Luckily for me Telecost performed this task in 2002 - they studied the phone records of 100 companies around the UK in various industry sectors. In total some 2 million records were analysed - of course some time has gone by and without a bigger study it is difficult to be certain - but here are the results:
Average length of call to mobile (07 numbers) - 110 seconds.
Average length of landline call (01 numbers) - 112 seconds.
Average length of call to landline (02 numbers) - 121 seconds.
Therefore, if the average call length is approximately 2 minutes then the following is also true:
A 2 minute call on BT Standard Rate to mobile is 45p and to landline is 15p inc BT's call setup fee.
A 2 minute mobile call using BT's 'Business Plan' is 25p (capped) and a 2 minute landline call is 8p on a 1 year contract.
A 2 minute call on BT's 'Oneplan' to mobile is 20p(capped) and to landline is 5p(capped) on a 2 year contract with 2 extra BT services required.
A 2 minute call through Westlake LCR to mobile would cost 18p and to landline would cost 2.5p on a one year contract.
A 2 minute mobile call using Midland LCR to mobile is 16p and a 2 minute landline call is 1.8p on a 1 year contract with a minimum call spend requirement.
A 2 minute call using Gradwell VOIP to mobile would cost 20p and a 2 minute call to landline would be free(subject to acceptable usage otherwise would cost 2.5p) on a 3 month contract.
The conclusion therefore is:- if your business makes average length calls then you are probably better off with LCR or VOIP, however if your business calls are typically long then BT offers good value, however...
To benefit from maximum call savings customers should consider using voip phone systems such as Asterisk which will can be programmed to take the most efficient route. For example: - you can route all national calls through VOIP hence take advantage of free calls and unlimited outbound trunks and make savings on your line rentals, you can route mobile calls through GSM - hence achieve free calls to staff mobiles & mobile tarifs of 1.45p 4.5p - use BT Oneplan to route long calls.
Call rates in this report were obtained in Sept 08 - some of the information above may or may not be accurate at the time you read this article hence this information should be treated as a yardstick.
About the Author:
The author is a VOIP phone systems consultant and has been involved in VOIP telecoms since 2003. Please check out the latest UK Call Rate Comparisons.
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