TELECOM 247

UK Residential Telecom Tariff Comparisons, v99, 31 Mar 2006

Comparisons of 173 residential and 105 business telephone tariff costs,
and 216 residential and 118 business call plans charged by 160 different
operators and resellers in the United Kingdom, compiled by Magenta
Systems Ltd.

123Call, 18185.co.uk, 1899.com, 21st Century Telecom, AbroadTel, ACN,
Adept Telecom, Alpha Easy, Alpha Telecom, AOL, Argos Telecom, Auracall,
Axis Telecom, B4UDial, Babble, Beaming, Britclick, British Gas
(Centrica), British Telecom, Budgetcom, Bulldog, Business
Communications, BWN Telecom, Cable Direct, Call 18866, Call2Call,
Call2Save, Callserve, Callthrough.co.uk, Call Union, Carphone Warehouse,
Cheapest Calls, Cheapest Chat, Cheers International, Clever Rates,
Connaught, CountryCall, CPS Connection, CytaUK, Daisy Communications,
Direct Save Telecom, DrayTEL, Dial00, Dial Around, DialWise, Discount
Dial, Easy-Dial, Ecomtel, Enable Communications, Equitalk, Euphony,
EurExcel, EW Communications, ExchangeXP, eZe-Talk, First National
Telecom, First:Telecom, First Number, FreedomCall Focus 4U, Freetalk,
Gem Telecom, Gossiptel, Go Talk!, Gradwell, Happy Talk, HIGHnet,
Homecall, Home Choice, Ifinity Telephone, Internet Telecom, Joentelecom,
Joy Telecom, Just Dial, Just Phone, KDDI Europe, Kent Telephones,
Kingston Comms, Lansdowne Telecom, Liquid Telecom, Lloyds TSB Ideal,
Lo-Call Telecom, LycaTel, MCI WorldCom, Midas Telecom, My Mondo, NewTel,
Nildram, Nomi Dial, NTL, OneBill Telecom, One.Tel, Opal, PhoneBird, The
Phone Co-Op, Pipecall, Pipex, Planet Talk, Post Office, Primus, Qdial,
Quip, QX Telecom, RateBuster, Red Talk, Resource Utilities, Saga
Telephone Service, Sainsburys Telecom, SchoolTel, Simply-Fone, Sip2Go,
Sipgate, Skype, Sky Talk, Splash Telecom, Solwise, SunDial, SuperLine,
Swiftcall, Swiftnet, Switch Telecom, Talkcheaper.net, Telco Global,
Tele2, Telappliant, Telecom Plus, Telecubes, Telediscount, Telesave,
Telesavers, Telestunt, TeleTop, Telewest, Telstra, Tesco Talk, Tiscali,
Topup2Talk, TopUpNow, Toucan, Touch Telecom, TRA UK, Universal Telecom,
Uniworld, Vartec, Ventelo, Voicenet, VoIP-4U, VoIPCheap, Voipfone,
Vonage, Wanadoo, Welcome Telecom, WightCable, XFone, XLN Telecom, Yellow
Telecoms, Your Communications and Your Connection.

The tariff comparison also contains tables showing all non-geographic
special tariff codes for mobiles, paging and information services,
including operator, use, and tariff band, national and international
dialling codes, access codes, and forthcoming code changes.

The full tariff comparison may also be viewed on-line at:

http://www.magsys.co.uk/telecom/

Please note the full range of tariff information is only available to
paid members. Non-members may still view residential tariffs on the web
site, but only members can view business tariffs and download the
original spreadsheets and Acrobat (PDF) files.

Full membership details are on the web site.

Version 99 in late March 2006 adds ACN (business) and FreedomCall
(residential), and updates BT, 1899.com (residential), ACN
(residential), Adept Telecom (business and residential), Budgetcom
(residential), Cheapest Calls (residential), Cheapest Chat
(residential), Dial Around (residential), DialWise (residential), Direct
Save Telecom (residential and business), Discount Dial (residential), EW
Communications (residential), HomeCall (residential), Lycatel
(residential), One.Tel (business and residential), Telecom Plus
(residential), Telediscount (residential), Telesavers (residential),
Telestunt (residential), Vonage (residential and business). Homecall
(Caudwell Communications) has been taken over by Pipex Communications.
Lo-Rate Telecom (business) has been removed for breaching Ofcom
obligations issued due to over 800 customer complaints.

BT has made a lot of changes this month. The minimum call charge for
most residential calls has increased from 4.94p to 5.41p (including
VAT), which also effects all those operators with call through or two
stage dialling 08/09 numbers. For business users still on the original
BT Business tariff (and related tariffs that are percentage discounted
such as BT Corporate Choices, Business Choice, Business Advantage, etc),
the minimum cost increases from 4.2p to 5p (excluding VAT), local call
cost up to 4p/min peak and 1p/min off-peak, and national call cost
increases to 8p/min peak, 4p/min evening and 1.5p/min weekend. Note
these business increases do not effect most calls on BT Customer
Commitment and BT Business Plans, nor has the cost of local NTS (0845)
and national NTS (0870) calls been increased.

BT has increased the cost of many off-peak international calls for the
residential BT Together packages (evening and weekend calls now cost the
same), so most major countries have increased from 9p/min to 10p/min
off-peak. Japan and Hong Kong remain cheaper than Europe and the USA for
some bizarre reason. But BT has reduced call costs for the BT Together
International Options (which costs Ł1/month extra), from 5p/min to
3p/min, and added more countries at this price, a total of 30 now.

Call costs for BTs two residential VoIP services, BT Communicator (PC
only) and BT Broadband Talk have been standardised and new countries
added, with most major countries now 1.25p/min. The package prices for
BT Broadband Talk have been significantly reduced to Ł2.99/month for
unlimited inland off-peak calls and Ł7.99/month including unlimited peak
calls.

BT has added several new charge bands, FM8 for its own mobile phones,
FW1 and FW2 for calls to WiFi services, G23 and I27 charged at the old
national rate, and another directory enquiries band, DQ72. The cost of
sending SMS text messages from fixed lines has been added to the
comparison.

BT has withdrawn from new supply Business Highway (Home Highway went
last year), ISDN2 DASS2 and ISDN30 I421.