Site History from 1996
Version 128 in late December 2008 updates BT, 0844 Calls (residential), 118185.co.uk (residential), 1899.com (residential), ACN (residential), AOL Talk (residential), Axis Telecom (business and residential), Call 18866 (residential),Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk (residential), Direct Save Telecom (residential and business), Eclipse (residential), FreeCall (residential), ICUK (residential), Kingston Communications, Pipex HomeCall (residential), Phone Co-Op (residential), PlusNet Home Phone (residential), Post Office (residential), Sainsbury's (residential), Scottish & Southern Energy (residential), Sky Talk (residential), Telesavers (residential), Tiscali (residential), Virgin Media (residential), WebCall Direct (residential), Yourcalls.net (residential) and Your Connection (business). Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk Business is now known as Opal. Voice Trading has been removed because it no longer sterling prices, only Euros.
The prices of all residential tariffs and call costs were initially automatically reduced to reflect the new 15% VAT level introduced from 1st December 2008, for the next 13 months only, and then adjusted for specific operators. From January 2010, VAT will return to it's previous 17½% (or maybe even higher). Operators vary about their approach to the lower VAT rate. Many are passing the cut on in full (including BT, Pipex, PlusNet, Post Office, Tiscali, Scottish & Southern Energy), others are reducing call prices only to keep nicely rounded monthly package and rental prices (Virgin Media, TalkTalk), some are ignoring the VAT reduction and effectively increasing prices (AOL, Finarea). None of the call though operators appear to have adjusted their published prices to reflect the lower prices being charged by BT, but may argue their pricing is simply rounded to the nearest whole penny. But this comparison has always tried to show prices rounded to two decimal places, so the lack of accurate pricing may lead to changes been missed.
Ofcom is planning to introduce new 116 pan-European helpline phone numbers, that will be free of charge. 116000 will be for missing children, 116111 children's helpline and 116123 emotional support helpline. Ofcom, advised by the government, will choose suitable organisations for allocation of these numbers.
Paid site members should note the main tariff spreadsheet is now Excel 97-2003 format, and there are minor formatting differences needed for a new automated web site creation system used this month. In coming months this new system will allow long overdue radical improvements in site design.
Version 127 in late October 2008 adds Continental Telecom (business), Gold Telecom (business), Phonestar (business) and updates BT, Demon (business), Kingston Communications, Pipex HomeCall (residential), Tiscali (residential), Skype (PC only residential), XLN Telecom (business) and Yourcalls.net (residential). Equitalk, SchoolTel, Telstra and Your Connection have been removed for old tariffs, Your Communications was taken over by Thus a while ago and so has been removed.
BT has increased business line rental by about 3.5% to £14.87/month for analogue, £16.48/month per ISDN-30 channel and £33.63/month for ISDN-2e, all plus VAT, from 1st November 2008, Featureline rental has also increased.
The Number 118118 directory enquiry service has raised it's cost again by moving to new band DQ105 costing 69p set-up and 29p/min by BT, but up to 35% more by some other operators, 95p set-up and 45p/min by Tiscali, and £1.17 set-up and 47.5p/min by Pipex Homecall, for instance. Most other directory enquiry services have also moved to more expensive bands in the past few months, BT 118500 is now DQ103 costing 23p set-up and 64p/min.
Ofcom has yet again deferred reducing the cost of calling 0870 numbers, and now aims to publish a further statement on implementing any changes to 0870 policy by the end of the year, almost three years after it's original decision to stop 0870 being used as premium numbers.
Version 126 in late September 2008 updates BT, 118185.co.uk (residential), 1899.com (residential), ACN (residential), AOL Talk (residential), Axis Telecom (business and residential), Call 18866 (residential), Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk (residential), Coms.Com (business and residential), Euphony (business and residential), First:Telecom (residential), Kingston Communications, Phone Co-Op (residential), Saga (residential), Sainsbury's (residential), Scottish & Southern Energy (residential), Sky Talk (residential), Telecom Plus (residential), Tesco (residential), Tiscali (residential), Toucan (residential), Virgin Media (residential), Vonage (residential) and Yourcalls.net (residential). Auracall, Swiftnet, and XFone have been removed for old tariffs. Telappliant VoIPTalk is no longer marketed directly to residential customers. Bulldog customers have been migrated to Tiscali or Pipex so it has been removed.
Virgin Media has increased standard international prices for the second time this year, so calls to the USA have now doubled in price to 20p/min, and most off-peak prices are now double or triple BT, being the least competitive in the comparison.
Version 125 in late August 2008 adds Fused Webcalls (business) and updates BT, 05pence (residential), 0844 Calls (residential), Abroadcall (residential), AbroadTel (residential), Call Happy (residential), Call2Call (residential), Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk (business), Cheapest Calls (residential), Cheapest Chat (residential), CherryCall (residential), CountryCall (residential), Dial Around (residential), DialWise (residential), Discount Dial (residential), Eclipse (residential), Kingston Communications, Liquid Telecom (residential and business), Localphone (residential), Lycatel (residential), My Mondo (residential), NetCalls4Less (residential), Nildram (residential), Pipex HomeCall (residential), Phone Cheap (residential), Phone Co-Op (residential), PhoneBird (residential), Post Office (residential), Qdial (residential), QX Telecom (residential), RateBuster (residential), Simply-Fone (residential), Sky Talk (residential), TeleTop (residential), Telesavers (residential), TopUpNow (residential), TopUp2Talk (residential), Vectone (residential) and WebCall Direct (residential). Lansdowne Telecom (business), Lo-call Telecom (business), MCI (business), MegaCalls (residential), Nomi (residential), ntl:Telewest (business), OneBill Telecom (business), Opal (business), Primus (business) and Qualicom Aspire (business), have been removed for old tariffs.
Many operators have been increasing costs to Pakistan recently due to the Pakistan raising the tax (Settlement Rate) on incoming calls from US$0.025 to US$0.10 per minute (about 1.25p to 5p/min). Operators already charging 10p/min or more for Pakistan might be able to absorb the increased tax, but better value operators need to increase the call cost. Historically, most countries taxed incoming international calls and this cost was one reason for the high cost of calling many countries. In recent years such taxes have been reduced (India from US$0.10 to US$0.05) or removed, and with the use of the internet to deliver overseas calls, costs have fallen. It's why you can call China or the USA for the same price (or less) as a UK call from better operators. Cuba is a notable exception, being the most expensive country by several fold.
BT is increasing the residential call connection cost from 6p to 7p, from 16th September 2008, which is reflected in this update. The domino effect means other operators that closely follow BT pricing will be following, Carphone Warehouse from 1st October, and Post Office from 7th September (but only to 6p, and making UK weekend calls free). BT is reducing charging for the residential Mobile Saver scheme to 7.5p/min 24/7, which will be the cheapest way of calling a UK mobile peak time (but Carphone Warehouse is dropping to 7p/min in October).
Version 124 in late June 2008 adds Andrews & Arnold (business and residential), Maxtalk (business and residential), and Primus (residential) and updates BT, FreedomCall (residential), ICUK (business and residential), Jajah (residential), Jersey Telecom (residential), Just Phone (residential), Kent Telephones (business), Sainsbury's (residential) and Voipfone (residential). Gem Telecom has disappeared and been removed. Intelligent Networks (aka CPS Connections) has been removed for old tariffs.
BT has added another new WiFi band and two more directory enquiry bands, so there are now 104 different price bands.
Version 123 in late May 2008 updates BT, 05pence (residential), 123 Call (residential), 4tel Communications (business), Abroadcall (residential), Band Telecom (business), CF1 Telecom (business), Clever Rates (residential), CherryCall (residential), Coms.Com (business and residential), CountryCall (residential), Demon (business), Easy-Dial (residential), Kingston Communications, and Virgin Media (residential). 21st-Century Telecom has disappeared and been removed. BillSmart, Business Communications, BWN Telecom, Cheers International, Connaught Telecom, Daisy Communications and EW Communications have been removed for old tariffs.
BT has added a new WiFi band and another directory enquiry band. BT has increased the minimum call charge for BT Commitment option 1 to 3.5p. Business Broadband Voice inland prices have been reduced to the same as BT Business Plan with £500 spend, so inland drops from 3.5p/min to 2.6p/min, capped at 5p.
Version 122 in early May 2008 adds Call Happy (residential) and updates BT, 0844 Calls (residential), 118185.co.uk (residential), AOL Talk (residential), Budgetcom (residential), Callserve (residential), Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk (residential), Cheapest Calls (residential), Dial Around (residential), DialWise (residential), Discount Dial (residential), First:Telecom (residential), FreeCall (residential), Jersey Telecom (residential), Phone Cheap (residential), Sainsbury's (residential), Sky Talk (residential), TeleTop (residential), Telesavers (residential), Telestunt (residential), TopUpNow (residential) and WebCall Direct (residential). Internet Telecommunications has been placed in administration and has been removed. eZe-Talk, Switch Telecom and Voicenet have been removed for old tariffs, Babble and Sip2Go seem to have disappeared and have been removed.
BT has added two more directory enquiry bands, so there are now over 100, one of which is free of charge.
From 1st May 2008, is changing business international call prices. Many countries have moved to new price bands, and nearly all price band numbers (or letters) have changed as well, but are still different for the three main tariff groups. Costs for BT Standard Business international calls have increased by about 15% so the most expensive countries are now £2.50/min (and the cheapest 30p/min). BT Business Plan sees some call reductions (China down from 60p/min to 15p/min), while BT Customer Commitment sees minor increases (most of Europe up to 9p/min) and some reductions (China down to 15p/min). Strangely, many countries cost more under BT Customer Commitment than BT Business Plan, despite the former being aimed at substantial monthly spend levels. Business satellite call costs have increased, some have doubled.
Two years after it's proposal to reduce the cost of calling 0870 numbers from February 2008, Ofcom has issued yet another consultation document that now proposes the cost should drop to the same as geographic numbers by the autumn, subject to the resolution of a dispute over termination rates. The only real difference with the new consultation is that Ofcom is no longer requiring a pricing pre-announcement by operators that choose to charge more than geographic cost. Ofcom is also extending premium rate service regulation by PhonepayPlus (aka ICSTIS) to 0871/0872/0872 numbers charged at more than 5p/min. BT has agreed that once this regulation is place, it will allow international access to 0844 and 0871 numbers, which it currently blocks due to fraud and other scams.
Version 121 in late March 2008 updates BT, Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk (residential), Direct Save Telecom (residential and business), Pipex HomeCall (residential), Sainsbury's (residential), Sky Talk (residential), Telecom Plus (residential), Telesave (residential and business), Tesco Talk (residential), Tiscali (residential) and Virgin Media (residential). Beaming and Call2Save have been removed for old tariffs.
The Residential Telephone Tariffs - Packages sorted comparison has been improved with new columns for call connection charge, call minimum charge, paper bill charge and non-direct debit payment charge. Because some operators quote monthly line rental including a paper bill (BT and Virgin Media), and others without (TalkTalk), the table now allows direct comparison of monthly cost by direct debit without a paper bill, DD with a paper bill and non-DD with a paper bill. Some of these new costs are still missing, they've yet to be collected from some smaller operators.
From 1st April 2008, BT is increasing basic residential line rental by 75p/month to £11.75/month, but increasing the paper-free discount by the same amount to £1.25/month. But customers must apply for paper-free billing to avoid paying more each month. Those not paying by direct debit are charged an extra £1.50/month.
Residential day time calls are increasing from 3.25p/min to 4p/min (plus 6p connection charge, so 10p for the first minute) and evening calls to 1.5p/per minute instead of being fixed at 4.5p for one hour, while weekend calls are free for the first hour, then 4p/min. BT is renaming most of the residential packages and reducing the monthly cost of BT Together 3 by £1.25/month. BT Together 1 is now Unlimited Weekend Plan at £11.75/month, BT Together 2 is now Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan at £14.45/month, while BT Together 3 is now Unlimited Anytime Plan at £17.70/month, all including line rental.
BT residential international call costs are increasing by between 1.5p and 15p/min, France is now 11.5p/min off peak, 21p/min peak, USA 11.5p/min off-peak, 17.5p/min peak. Bizarrely, Japan and Hong Kong remain cheaper than any European countries or North America. International Option is now International Saver, still £1/month but now offers much cheaper international calls to all countries instead of just 35. Since many countries are still charged at 60p/min or more by BT, adding International Saver may pay for itself with just a few minutes of calls each month, for instance Israel is 10 times more expensive without Saver.
BT Business is increasing the daytime peak call period by two hours per day to 7am to 7pm (residential became 6am to 6pm a while ago), and increased local and national call costs for standard business lines so a national daytime 01/02 call now costs 9p/min (ex VAT), and increased the call set-up fee to 5p (ex VAT). Most business users should be using BT Business Plan or Customer Commitment where call costs are much lower. The BT Advantage and Business Choices options were discontinued for new supply 12 months and have now been removed from the comparison.
Virgin Media has increased all standard international rates by 5p/min. Other operators are following BT and increasing calling rates, including Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk, Direct Save Telecom Sky Talk and Tiscali. Calls to 0845 and 0870 number also seem to be generally increasing, despite 0870 numbers supposed to have been reduced in February.
Version 120 in late February 2008 adds Localphone (residential), Simply-Fone (business) and updates BT, ACN (residential), Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk (residential), ICUK (business and residential), Orange (residential), PlusNet Home Phone (residential), Simply-Fone (residential), Sky Talk (residential), Britclick, Midas Telecom and Planet Talk have been removed for old tariffs. Pipex Business is now called Vialtus Solutions, the Pipex brand and residential customers were taken over by Tiscali last year.
BT has added a 99th directory enquiry band, and 11th mobile band.
From 1st April 2008, BT is increasing basic residential line rental by 75p/month but increasing the paper-free discount by the same amount. BT is renaming most of the residential packages and reducing the monthly cost of BT Together 3 by £1.25/month. Evening calls will again be charged per minute instead of being fixed for one hour. Full details next month.
Ofcom has proposed a new area code 01987 for Ebbsfleet in Kent, where up to 25,000 homes are being developed.
Version 119 in late January 2008 adds 05pence (residential) and Abroadcall (residential) and updates BT, AbroadTel (residential), Clever Rates (residential), Gradwell (business), Internet Telecommunications (business and residential), PhoneBird (residential), Welcome Telecom (business) and XLN Telecom (business).
BT Together 1 residential customers now have free weekend calls (for the first hour), previously 4.5p for the hour.
BT has simplified the costing of international ISDN 64K data calls, so all schemes now use the same five country bands, down from 10 on some schemes, some prices will have gone up, some down. There are now 98 different directory enquiry tariff bands, the latest of which costs £3.68 for the first minute, then £1.99 each extra minute.
From 20th February 2008, all BT business customers with a single telephone line will start a new 12 month contract on BT Business Line Divert at the same price as a normal business line but including call diversion feature. The new contract means 12 months rental must be paid even if the line is cancelled or transferred to another provider. Such customers should receive a letter in February allowing them to opt out of the new contract and call divert, which they may not need or want.
The planned reduction in cost of 0870 calls due on 1st February 2008 appears to have been delayed by Ofcom and BT due to disputes with various providers that are reluctant to forego the massive revenue such numbers generate, and which have not moved customers onto alternate numbers despite almost two year's notice of the changes. Not a single operator has yet announced a reduction in the cost of calling 0870 numbers.