UK Residential Telecom Tariff Comparisons, v122, 2 May 2008

Comparisons of 151 residential and 89 business telephone tariff call 
costs, and 193 residential and 110 business call plans charged by 149
different operators and resellers in the United Kingdom, compiled by
Magenta Systems Ltd.

05pence, 0844 Calls, 123Call, 18185.co.uk, 1899.com, 21st Century 
Telecom, 4tel Communications, Abroadcall, AbroadTel, ACN, Adept 
Telecom, Alpha Telecom, AOL, Auracall, Axis Telecom, Band Telecom,
Barablu, BillSmart, British Telecom, Budgetcom, Bulldog, Business
Communications, BWN Telecom, Call 18866, Call2Call, Call Happy, 
Callserve, Callthrough.co.uk, Call Union, Care Telecom, Carphone 
Warehouse, CF1 Telecom, Cheapest Calls, Cheapest Chat, Cheers 
International, CherryCall, Clever Rates, Coms.Com, Connaught, 
CountryCall, CytaUK, Daisy Communications, Demon, Direct Save Telecom, 
DrayTEL, Dial Around, DialWise, Discount Dial, Easy-Dial, Eclipse, 
Equitalk, Euphony, EW Communications, First National Telecom, 
First:Telecom, First Number, Focus 4U, FreeCall, FreedomCall,
Gem Telecom, GoTalk!, Gradwell, HIGHnet, ICUK, Intelligent Networks,
Jajah, Jersey Telecom, Joy Telecom, Just Phone, Kent Telephones, 
Kingston Comms, Lansdowne Telecom, Liquid Telecom, Lo-Call Telecom, 
Localphone, LycaTel, MCI WorldCom, MegaCalls, My Mondo, NetCalls4Less, 
Nildram, Nomi Dial, OneBill Telecom, Opal, Orange, PhoneBird, Phone 
Cheap, The Phone Co-Op, Pipex, PlusNet, Post Office, Primus, Qdial, 
Qualicom Aspire, Qudo, QX Telecom, RateBuster, Resource Utilities, Saga 
Telephone Service, Sainsbury's Telecom, SchoolTel, Scottish & Southern 
Energy, Simply-Fone, Sipgate, Skype, Sky Talk, Smallworld Media, 
Solwise, Story Telecom, SuperLine, Swiftcall, Swiftnet, Talkcheaper.net, 
Telappliant, Telecom Plus, Telediscount, Telesave, Telesavers, 
Telestunt, TeleTop, Telstra, Tesco Talk, Tiscali, Topup2Talk, TopUpNow, 
Toucan, UKCall, Unicom, Universal Telecom, Uniworld, Vectone, Ventelo, 
Virgin Media (ntl:Telewest), Vodafone, Voice Trading, VoIP-4U, 
VoIPCheap, Voipfone, Vonage, WebCall Direct, Welcome Telecom, 
Work-Phones, XFone, XLN Telecom, Yellow Telecoms, Yourcalls.net, Your 
Communications, Your Connection, and Zen Internet.

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 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.