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You do however, also need to be aware that for cable telephone subscribers, the choice of alternative provider is much more limited than for people with a standard BT landline. Telephone Line RentalThe basic telephone line rental costs £10.50pm for customers willing to pay on monthly direct debit through BT. Also the big difference between providers of the actual telephone line, is the cost of installation, which is typically £75 under BT (even for a second line) and between £10 and £50 with Cable (or even free under some special offers), depending on whether you subscribe to other services as well. More recently, BT has started to unbundle the local exchange, which allows other providers to not only charge you for calls, but also the line rental. However, this has yet to have much impact on the monthly line rental and installation charges, as the other providers need to install their own equipment in each exchange and therefore many areas of the country do not yet have access to these services. Basic Telephone Call ChargesBT have abolished their standard call tariff with all customers being moved onto BT Option 1, whereby evening and weekend local and national landline calls cost a fixed amount for the first hour, with daytime calls all fixed at 3p per minute. BT do however, also allow 10% off a selected list of 9 phone numbers (Friends and Family), of which one can be a mobile phone and one can be an international number, plus 15% off your best friend number. They have however, now introduced a charge on returning a call to the number provided on the 1471 service (6p whether or not the call is answered), which seems to be extremely unfair.. However, the main benefit for customers with a BT telephone line is the fact that you can easily choose to use another supplier for the actual telephone calls. These can come in various disguises, ones which demand that you enter a prefix before the number which you are calling, ones which provide a router box which plugs into your phone line (and dials the prefix for you) or carrier pre-select telecom companies. The latter are the simplest option, as the necessary alterations are made at your local exchange and therefore, although this may take up to a month to arrange, means that the process is completely seamless to the consumer. The plans may also require you to use a prepayment method - normally via a credit card. Cable telephone users can also do this, but have to use either a dialler plug-in box, or phone a free-phone number in order to make their phone call. Unfortunately, we have noticed problems with the plug-in box method, whereby the phone line does not always seem to connect, and the noise on the telephone line is increased, making it less reliable for internet connections.
Telco offer various plans (include prefix calling), but these tend to be more expensive. Telco provide a standard carrier pre-select service (Telco Select) as well as Telco Together, which provides reduced call charges plus 500 free national and local call minutes on a weekend (per month), for the additional charge of £1.99pm. However, you do not get any discount under this plan for selected numbers.
TalkTalk from the well respected Carphone Warehouse, Another option is to switch to Powergen, which unfortunately currently only offers a router box. We have been unable to find details of their call charges on their website and have therefore not included any specific information. However, Powergen so seem to be a slightly cheaper option than Telco (providing an automatic 20% off your top 10 called numbers each month, including one international number and one mobile number). You also know that you get the maximum benefit from Powergen's calling circle numbers, as they are automatically altered each month to represent the top 10 telephone numbers which you called that month. All prices listed below exclude the friends and family / calling circle discounts available from some suppliers . CALL CHARGE SUMMARY Daytime (all calls in cost per minute)
Off Peak - evenings (all calls in cost per minute unless specified)
Off-peak - weekends (all calls in cost per minute unless specified)
(1) Subject to a 6p connection fee. However, calls to other local customers on the same network on an evening and weekend are charged at a flat fee of 6p (unlimited). (3) Costs £1.99 per month extra - subject to 5p minimum call charge and includes 500 free off-peak weekend calls per month. (4) Subject to 5p minimum call charge (5) Subject to a 3p connection fee - please also note that calls to all other TalkTalk customers are free Telephone Call Packages (all-inclusive call allowances)All of the main telephone providers now offer all-inclusive package deals as a means of keeping control of your telephone call charges. All of these packages exclude charges to non-geographic numbers (such as 0845, 0870), mobile phones and international calls. Prices quoted are additional to your standard line rental (generally £10.50pm). The following packages are currently available BT Together Option 1 all off-peak local and national call costs 6p for 60 minutes per call - this is their standard service.. BT Together Option 2 costs £6 per month and covers all off-peak local and national calls for up to 60 minutes per call. BT Together Option 3 costs £15 per month and covers all local and national calls for up to 60 minutes per call.
TalkTalk TalkTalk TalkTalk
Calling Mobile PhonesThe competition commission ruled in 2003 that mobile phone companies had to reduce the amount which they charged for calls from landlines - however, despite the passage of time, there has not been a great reduction in the overall call charges All prices exclude the friends and family / calling circle discounts available from some suppliers . CALLING MOBILE PHONE CHARGES SUMMARY Daytime (all calls in cost per minute)
Off Peak - evenings (all calls in cost per minute)
Off-peak - weekends (all calls in cost per minute)
(1) Subject to a 5p minimum call charge (5) Subject to a 4.5p minimum call charge International CallsWith the multi-cultural nature of Britain and rapidly growing international commerce, it is imperative to consider the costs of phoning abroad. We include a sample of prices for the most popular destinations below. All prices exclude the friends and family / calling circle discounts available from some suppliers . If you are a BT Together customer, you can pay an additional £2.50pm which will allow you to make calls to the following destinations for only 5p per minute (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Eire, Spain (excl. canary islands), Switzerland and USA However, please note that this £2.50 is payable per country on this International Option. A SAMPLE OF INTERNATIONAL CALL CHARGES SUMMARY Daytime (all calls in cost per minute)
Off Peak - evenings (all calls in cost per minute unless specified)
Off-peak - weekends (all calls in cost per minute unless specified)
(1) Subject to a 5p minimum call charge (2) Subject to a 5p minimum call charge - costs £2.50 pm per country on top of BT Together charges extra - excludes Canary Islands and only covers 13 countries. (7) Subject to a 5p minimum call charge - you can choose one bonus country to receive a further discount on calls to that country.. (8) Costs £1.99 per month extra - subject to 5p minimum call charge (90) Subject to a 4.5p minimum call charge OVERVIEW BT and the alternative carriers, all currently charge a minimum call fee, but this is set against the cost of the actual call, which can therefore work out cheaper for a lot of short local calls. Call charges for Cable Telephone networks are due to be reviewed during 2007 and therefore the site will be updated after that review.
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