The UK telecoms giant BT seems to have adopted the selling of capped calls as part of its call plans - are ‘capped calls’ really offering good value to the customer as call plans usually carry long tie-ins & other obligations?

Call rates are unusually tricky to find on websites, BT’s own website proved awkward to say the least with over 50 long lists to look through I wouldn’t be surprised if many new customers give up the search - or maybe thats the intention? Calling telecoms companies proved a bit more fruitfull athough overwhelming with the variety of products that seemed to offer good rates on one hand and take away with long contract obligations with the other.

The next task was to establish UK’s average call length. Telecost performed a study in 2002 of 100 UK businesses ranging from high users such as call centres to small enterprises at variuos locations. Over 2 million calls were analysed with results as shown below:

Average length of call to mobile (07 numbers) - 110 seconds.

Average length of national call (01 numbers) - 112 seconds.

Average length of call to landline (02 numbers) - 121 seconds.

If the average call length is 2 minutes then the following stands to reason:

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 through BT’s Oneplan to mobile would cost 20p (capped) and to landline would cost 5p (capped) on a 2 year contract with 2 additional services as a requirement.

A 2 minute call through Westlake 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, based on the information above being correct therefore is:- if you own an ‘average’ business then you are better off with LCR or VOIP. If your bunsiness makes longer than average phonecalls then you are better off staying with BT, although…

The most efficient way to handle business calls is to use a telephone system such as Asterisk which is able to route calls via the most efficient methods: ie. route all national calls through VOIP hence take advantage of free calls and unlimited outbound trunks. Route mobile calls through GSM gateways to benefit from free calls to staff mobiles & mobile call rates of 4.5p. It is also not a bad idea to have a few BT lines on Oneplan to route long calls. This method also allows gives the user the benefit of mutiple failovers.

This article is merely a guide to help UK businesses make up their own minds - the call rates were obtained in Sept 08 hence may or may not be accurate at the time of reading.