Business Phone (BT Land Line) - Any Cheaper Alternatives?

Huggins

Hi All, BT are currently charging me £44.61 + vat per quarter in line rental. I need to keep my existing phone number but would like to get the line rental price down.

I hardly ever use the line for outgoing calls but do receive a fair amount of incoming calls. I also have a call diversion service in place with BT - whereby customers calling my landline are diverted to my mobile. It's a handy service but looking at my phone bill it's costing me a small fortune in diversion charges. (Also, very annoyingly, I keep receiving faxes to my my non fax line from witheld numbers - so when i'm not in the office these divert to my landline and i'm charged for the privilege!!)

any help much appreciated.

Regards Huggins

chrisb1357

Lease Cost Routing might be an option but it means your calls and line problems will have to go via them and not BT and in the pass i have had major problems with these sort of people when a fault happens.

Chris

Huggins

ok thanks for the pointer. I'm hoping there is a reliable alternative elsewhere?

OldGreyFox

BT local business will divert free,if you rent a mobile from them for £5 a month . I dont know what the mobile tariff plan is like for outgoing calls.

For cheaper outgoing calls you can use www.18185.co.uk (you cant divert to your mobile via it).

Their are many cheaper business line providers.,but their contracts can be minefields.

koru

If you have broadband, you could get a line from Vonage for £6 per month, including all calls to UK landlines. You can set it to divert to your mobile (no extra charge) if your broadband connection is down. So, if you simply unplug the Vonage box, your connection will seem to be "down" and the calls will divert.

Ypaymore

koru wrote: »

If you have broadband, you could get a line from Vonage for £6 per month, including all calls to UK landlines. You can set it to divert to your mobile (no extra charge) if your broadband connection is down. So, if you simply unplug the Vonage box, your connection will seem to be "down" and the calls will divert.

Yes and your pay for the diverted calls from at least 12p a minute. Only the call divert feature is FOC.

so2006

I think you can port a number to Sipgate. That's if your willing to do it

ukbill69

What I done is called up and said I converted the back of my business into a bedroom, then you can get a free install on 18 month, well not sure now and get unlimited calls for £5 per month, free 0845 and 0870!, £11 per month I think. Bargain.

chrisb1357

For my new company setup i use SkypeIn Number which is i tink £8 for 3 months and then i pay £3.99 for unlimited UK 01 or 02 numbers subject to fair usage. This is better for me at the minute as i get a number stright away and with the above i can also forward calls to another 02 and 01 number if i wish for free or have a personal voice mail if i am busy.

I know its not like BT but where ever i am in the UK or if i move home i still keep the same number from skype

Chris

Ypaymore

ukbill69 wrote: »

What I done is called up and said I converted the back of my business into a bedroom, then you can get a free install on 18 month, well not sure now and get unlimited calls for £5 per month, free 0845 and 0870!, £11 per month I think. Bargain.

How can the calls be free if you pay for the call bundle?

ukbill69

Ypaymore wrote: »

How can the calls be free if you pay for the call bundle?

Well not free are they, works out cheaper than paying 12p + vat per min and 22p per min mobiles.