Capped Calls, Voip Phone Systems & LCR

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:

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.

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 a mobile (07 numbers) – 110 seconds.

Average duration of national call (01 number) – 112 seconds.

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

Assuming that the average call length therefore is 2 minutes:

A 2 Minute call at BT standard rate to mobile would cost 45p and to landline would cost 15p (inc call setup fee).

A 2 Minute call with BT’s ‘Business Plan’ to mobile would cost 25p (capped) and to landline would cost 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 mobile call using Westlake LCR is 18p and a 2 minute landline call is 2.5p on a one year contract.

A 2 minute call using Midland LCR to mobile is 16p and 1.8p to landline on a 1 year contract with minimum 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.

Based on the above information above being correct the conclusion therefore is:- if your business makes average length calls then LCR or VOIP providers offer the best call savings. If your bunsiness makes long phone calls on a regular basis then BT will be the better choice, but then…

The most efficient way to route 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 take advantage of free calls to staff mobiles & lowest possible mobile call rates(1.45 -4.5p/min). It is also a good 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 is guide to help UK companies make a more informed decision about their comms – the information above was obtained on Sept 08 hence e&oe.