British telecom 'wholesale' prices

[Postforce]

Hi All

I'm getting quite a few nuisance calls from people offering wholesale phone rates (latest i think were called TML) - they say they are part of BT. I'm happy with BT and am in a contract with them - is this just a hard sell or are these people allowed to sell 'cheaper' rates to BT customers.

Tks
:|
Brian

 

[garyk]

The 'part of BT' bit is a lie but yes lots of independant telco's are BT wholesale providers which means they *may* be able to offer you cheaper line rental and calls than BT retail (who themselves buy from BT wholesale) can.

 

[Shaun_Pearce]

Brian I think I may be able to help but at your pace and your terms. I aim to provide you with a full review on the best rates available to you. I can provide you with this information for free ofcourse and all I propose to do at this stage is itentify areas of saving that have on average shown some great prices.

Due to the fact it will cost you nothing and me time would you be interested in a free audit of your current telecommunications?

All the best

 

[My Owl 1]

Hi All

I'm getting quite a few nuisance calls from people offering wholesale phone rates (latest i think were called TML) - they say they are part of BT. I'm happy with BT and am in a contract with them - is this just a hard sell or are these people allowed to sell 'cheaper' rates to BT customers.

Tks
:|
Brian

Hi Brian,
Yes. We( UW and other independent Line rental providers) are able to offer cheaper line rental rates and call charges. My company uses both BT lines and BT unlooped lines(these are BT exchanges were the phone line is "owned" by the provider, like UW. Because we dont have such enormous overheads or advertising campaigns we are able like other independent providers to offer the same phone lines at about 45% cheaper than BT. However, there are quite a few independent companies out there that tie you in to contracts which are hard to get out off due to the small print. With us we offer a no minimum contract deal so if our customers are not totally satisfied then they can cancel their services with us for an admin fee and move on.

I hope this info clarifies your query.

best wishes

Avril

 

[rich998]

So how are these non-BT services working for people now? I've just had TML on the phone offering a saving of 40%, which is nice, but at what other cost?

 

[My Owl 1]

So how are these non-BT services working for people now? I've just had TML on the phone offering a saving of 40%, which is nice, but at what other cost?

I can only speak from my prosepctive as a UW customer and now as one of their distributors. We are paying less for our line rental and broadband than we were before and all our calls are free as we have all our utilities with UW. The customer service that I have received is good and the speed of broadband is up to 15mbps. I can ring my relations in Australia for free and also my sister in Spain. So I am happy.

It is horses for courses and what suits you, but i reckon that 9.5 times out of 10 we get it right and offer the best services we can. As to other services I know that VOIPHONES offer an excellent service too and like us strive towards a 100% customer service rating.

There are some good deals out there just a word of warning look at the small print to check that what you are quoted is for the life of the contract not as in some cases for the first 3 or 6 months.

i hope that is helpful.

best wishes

Avril

 

[cjd]

So how are these non-BT services working for people now? I've just had TML on the phone offering a saving of 40%, which is nice, but at what other cost?

BT are the most expensive service around because they reckon the BT brand buys them a premium. But personally, I don't think it's worth dicking around trying to shave a few quid per month off a phone bill - life is a little too short for that.

If you run a business though and have a number of lines and high call bill then it is worth looking around, but there's no real point looking at the consumer services for that; you really need to be looking at the best way of doing what you need - that's only very rarely just getting a cheaper deal.

 

[nass]

One question you need to ask is the nature of the contract. For example, if you have an annual contract, can you cancel at any time without incurring the full cost. Also what if you want to cancel 2 weeks into year 2.

 

[JElder]

Yes, they can - these resellers get substantial discounts from BT retail rates, and can pass all or some on to their customers. The physical line is the same, and it is still maintained by BT Openreach engineers.

They will also route your calls as well, using BT or a different call handler. Again, they get wholesale prices, and can pass some of the savings on.

This was all allowed when the government broke up BT's monopoly. On the plus side, some things, such as call sots, especially overseas, have come down hugely since. On the minus side, there are loads of dodgy companies who will tie you in to long term contracts with some hidden costs.

As long as you read and understand ALL the small print, it would be fine. Things like contracting for 12 months, but then if you do not give 3 months notice it automatically renews for another full 12 months and similar.

 

[Gavin Harris]

Brian I think I may be able to help but at your pace and your terms. I aim to provide you with a full review on the best rates available to you. I can provide you with this information for free ofcourse and all I propose to do at this stage is itentify areas of saving that have on average shown some great prices.

Due to the fact it will cost you nothing and me time would you be interested in a free audit of your current telecommunications?

All the best

Shaun can you drop me with a PM with your contact details please.

I'm just about to go into a business to review their phone lines and remove any unnecessary ones - it'd be a good time to look at call costs too.

Cheers

Gavin

 

[rich998]

Anyone hearing now about 'Revolution Telecom' how are now ringing me telling me 'I'd be stupid not to be saving over £100' on my phone bill...?

 

[Citrus Telecom]

We are a BT reseller and are able to offer a FREE tariff check, on both lines and calls.
Many businesses do NOT look at telecoms cost savings, because they use BT, which is a recognised brand, but expensive.
Do you know how much per minute you pay?
most businesses do NOT know.
BT charge a "set-up" fee, did you know that?
ALL the programming is carried out at the BT Exchange, so the lines stay the same as you have now.
hope this helps.
Mike at Citrus-Telecom. com

 

[JElder]

Anyone hearing now about 'Revolution Telecom' how are now ringing me telling me 'I'd be stupid not to be saving over £100' on my phone bill...?

It's a bit rude calling someone stupid...

They may be right, but ONLY if you are still on BT. I get these calls where they guarantee to save me 30% or whatever. However, we have not used BT for some time, and have a very competitive rate. They generally do not even ask this before offering their guarantee.

I wonder if I could get it in writing with a penalty clause...?

 

[Citrus Telecom]

BT always ask for a commitment term of 12 months, whereby they will "save" you money.
We offer a rolling 30 day agreement, NOT a 12, 24 or 36 month contract, so IF we don't deliver you can move away, NO Quibble.

 

[cjd]

Are you able to port numbers away from Citrus and if so who to?

 

[luke696]

Hi All

I'm getting quite a few nuisance calls from people offering wholesale phone rates (latest i think were called TML) - they say they are part of BT. I'm happy with BT and am in a contract with them - is this just a hard sell or are these people allowed to sell 'cheaper' rates to BT customers.

Tks
:|
Brian

None of them are part of BT, its wrong and illegal for them to say there are. BT are not allowed to sell below a certain rate as they could aquire the monopoly of the market again like they had pre 1999. None of these wholesalers have the expenses BT have either so it makes sense they can offer cheaper wholesale rates.

I work for You-Switch & we are partnered with a number of telecoms companies as we feel being able to offer different products to customers is a great advantage as not every business uses their landline in the same way.

For example a call centre may call customers on their mobiles for long durations, here we can offer a 20p call cap for the hour, others may be short snappy local calls where again we can offer low rates without the call set up fee other companies dont tell you about.

If you would like us to have a look into where you savings are let me know

 

[Alex@AMB]

I believe there are now over 700 resellers of this type, very competitive - and there are a lot of organisations of a dodgy nature making everyone skeptical.

If you choose the right company, you WILL save money and the service WILL be better than you will get at BT - it really is as simple as that.

But who do you choose? Are they dodgy?

Anyone can offer a 'tariff check' - look at their bill, calculate their ppm rate and apply their own, showing the saving. The cost isn't everything. Value is.

 

[luke696]

I believe there are now over 700 resellers of this type, very competitive - and there are a lot of organisations of a dodgy nature making everyone skeptical.

If you choose the right company, you WILL save money and the service WILL be better than you will get at BT - it really is as simple as that.

But who do you choose? Are they dodgy?

Anyone can offer a 'tariff check' - look at their bill, calculate their ppm rate and apply their own, showing the saving. The cost isn't everything. Value is.

Very true everyone expects good service with no disruptions in the service, which they should get, unfortunately theres many that are not upto scratch and thats when you get customers going back to BT and vowing never to leave, the clientel our partners work with are names such as peacocks, bon marche, premiership football clubs & also Sir Phillip Green. Which gives you an idea of what value they place on their customers.

 

[Alex@AMB]

Likewise, we work with the largest solicitors practice in the UK, numerous NHS trusts, a 119 site national estate agency, 2 of the top 5 insurance companies...

Doesn't make it any easier to get in front of someone though.

Persuading people you CAN save them money without ripping them off is hard work.

 

[rbw91]

BT charge a "set-up" fee, did you know that?

That's misleading.

Certain capped tariffs do, but you indicate all tariffs do, which is factually incorrect.

 

[shot2bits]

Also note that you need to make sure the savings are across the entire call type. Some companies will suggest they can save you X% but often this isn't across your entire spend. Mucky minutes (as this business is often called) is generally all about cost since the actual business isn't a complex proposition at this level. You have to beware of the real low cost proposals as the providers often use compression (used to fit lots of calls down a line) to such a level that some calls can be very poor quality or you'll find the service is unavailable during busy points.

I always produce graphical representations of current call spend to show customers their traffic profile before outlining their savings and use well known trusted suppliers. We're often not the cheapest (although we're not far out) but using good partners ensures our client churn is low.

Then there's VoIP which is a whole other subject. In short though, a VoIP solution enables you to get shot of ISDN line costs but you need to ensure you have decent connectivity in place to support call quality.