Voip Comparisons

As the ‘credit crunch’ strikes down even more corporate victims & consumer spending hits an all time low, outlook looks bleak for many British businesses, except for British Telecom the UK largest communications company who has increased call setup fees, line rentals & call charges.

Monthly line rentals for BT PSTN, ISDN2 & ISDN30 services vary from £12GBP to £15GBP on a minimum 12 month agreement, up on same time last year. UK VOIP ITSP Gradwell offers a good alternative to companies who are ready for SIP or IAX services with monthly line rental of £1.50 per trunk and unlimited outbound channels on a 3 month contract.

A telecoms industry favourite money spinner is the connection fee which has not escaped the recent price hikes with some BT connection charges up 25% to £299GBP(ISDN2) on last year. BT’s usual strategy is to offer free or reduced connection fees for customers willing to enter into long term agreements or call plans. UK VOIP telecoms providers answered back with free connection to all services and contract lengths of 1 to 3 months.

As of September 08 BT has increased it’s call setup fee to 7p which means that unless you have opted for a call plan or switched to LCR, you will be paying 7p for connection before you start your call. Many telecoms companies charge a minimum of one minute whilst UK VOIP providers lead the pack with minimum call charges of 1.5p - 2p & per second billing.

UK national minute rates vary from 0.8p to 4p (BT standard rate Septenber 08) UK mobile minute rates vary from 8p to 19p (BT standard rate September 08) - lowest rates usually carry contractual obligations and/or minimun call spend. Business VOIP service providers offer impressive no tie-in deals with mobile rates from 9-11p to mobiles and landlines rates of 1.25p - 1.5p, most ITSPs will negotiate deals for volume

BT ‘Oneplan’ offers 1 hour capped calls to mobiles & landlines at 20p & 5p respectively. This offer is good value if your business makes higher than average length calls, however customers will be tied into a 2 year deal & will need 2 additional BT services to quality. According to Telecost the average call lengh is less than 2 minutes and therefore would cost you less on good per minute deals.

Just one last thing - companies that have phone systems which support GSM gateways may achieve mobile minute rates of 1.47p & free office to staff mobile calls. This by far is the most efficient way of running corporate telecoms but requires prior agreement from the mobile network & some setup costs.

Companies that are thinking of switching to VOIP will need the following:

- BT 21CN compliant telephone system

- good quality internet service with little downtime & low contention

- adequate bandwidth to carry the required number of simultaneous calls.

- ip telephones

- Good advice & careful provisioning from a trustworthy IP Telecoms specialist