Calling Someone's Mobile? Halve the cost article discussion

I wonder if/when Ofcom cutting the termination charges (BBC link) will have any impact on the landline to mobile prices.

Also, the price that '3' are now allowed to charge is much more closely aligned to that of the other networks. It may prompt BT to introduce a uniform charge.

iamsam wrote: »

Also, I find the fact that 18185 is 'per minute' charged makes a big impact to the call costs (compared to, say, a 6p/min override provider). It might be worth mentioning...

Yes ,but the gateway numbers take longer than the same number on 18185 as it charges from the moment of connection to the 0871 gateway. I would say the whole call start to finish takes about 20 secs longer , even if both the gateway and called number are on speed dial , longer if your callee takes ages to answer.
But that said I prefer to use the gateways rather than 18185 (except weekend) ,cheaper conn fee with BT as well.
BTW Bt still charge per second on 0844/0871 numbers.

Alan

alan99 wrote: »

Yes ,but the gateway numbers take longer than the same number on 18185 as it charges from the moment of connection to the 0871 gateway. I would say the whole call start to finish takes about 20 secs longer , even if both the gateway and called number are on speed dial , longer if your callee takes ages to answer.
But that said I prefer to use the gateways rather than 18185 (except weekend) ,cheaper conn fee with BT as well.
BTW Bt still charge per second on 0844/0871 numbers.
Alan

I have an orchid dialler which handles the override for me, 'unanswered' calls to mobiles are on average less than 30 seconds in duration. This takes into account time the taken for voicemail to kick-in. Since (almost) all mobiles have voicemail activated, the fact that an override provider charges you even if the call isn't connected isn't a big factor.

Taking into account that any connected 18185 mobile call is 11p, this allows up to 80 seconds on BT to a 6p/min number for an equivalent cost. Most of my 'unanswered' calls using an override are ~5p/call - less than half the price of using 18185.

If you do get through and have a conversation, the 2p difference in connection fee makes up for the extra 20 seconds (1/3 of 6p), meaning that you'd never lose out with a per-second billing 6p/min override provider (otherwise, if the call duration was in the 40-59sec region of each billing minute 18185 would be marginally cheaper) - 18185 is always 0-6p/call more expensive.

Needless to say, that if the anti-voicemail message got through to some extent (or BT moved to per-minute billing), being charged for unconnected calls might swing it away from override providers in favour of 18185. Oh, and 2p/min at weekends.

thegreybeard wrote: »

Not only does the over-ride 18185 carry a 5p. connexion charge, BUT so do other over-rides, such as 0844, 0845 and 0871. Theirs is 3p.

18185 only charges 5p if your connected.

Where as calls to 0844/0845/0871 gateway access numbers are charged as soon as you hit announcement. Some suppliers charge a connection charge,some operate a minimum call charge it depends who your supplier is.The cost varies supplier to supplier.Eg: Virgin Media charge 6p connection and have also started barring access to these numbers.