Can BT charge for calling a non answered mobile from a landline?

toshkininny

I just want to check if this is common.

I have on occasions when we can't find our mobiles, called them from the landline, just for a couple of seconds and not picked up the call from the mobile - just disconnected it. My BT bill has now come in saying mobile phone called for one second and charging 0.33p. How can they charge for phoning a mobile when we haven't even connected? Is this right?

Ian011

The charge for calling a mobile number from a BT landline would also include a 21p connection fee, so a charge of 0.33p is totally incorrect anyway.

For unanswered calls there should be no charge. However, mobile phone voicemail kicking in would invoke a charge.

toshkininny

So even if you don't talk to someone and just ring a mobile, you are going to be charged at least 0.21p for the privilege - that is what they call a connection fee? - I thought connection meant when you actually get to speak to someone.

Ian011

Can you clarify that you didn't mean 0.33p (one third of a penny) in your OP, you instead meant 33p or £0.33 and in your next post you didn't mean 0.21p (one fifth of a penny) but instead meant 21p or £0.21?

To clarify the point made in a previous post, if a call is not answered, either by a person or by voicemail, or in any other way, for example by a fax machine, there should be no charge to the caller.

[Deleted User]

Hi,


methinks there will be the call connection fee, which connects your phone to whoever you are calling, then a charge for however long the phones are connected, whether answered on not.

toshkininny

Hi Ive been charged 33p for one second to a mobile from a landline.

toshkininny

and on another mobile phone number have been charged 33p for 5 seconds.

[Deleted User]

Hi,


landline to mobile is dearer than mob to mob.


Edit: on call charges you are charged per minute, rounded up, not by the second.

JJ_Egan

Are they connecting to voice mail even if cut off at start of VM ??

Ian011

toshkininny wrote: »

Hi Ive been charged 33p for one second to a mobile from a landline.

toshkininny wrote: »

and on another mobile phone number have been charged 33p for 5 seconds.

33p sounds like a fixed 21p connection fee plus 12p per minute, billed by the second but with a minimum one minute charge.

The call must have been answered in some way, as explained above, for the charges to have occurred.

Buzby

Yes - you ARE charged irrespective of whether the distant party answers. The rules were changed a good few years ago to stop an anomaly of when you could signal someone by ringing (Say 3 rings) then ending the call before an answer. This previously meant calls were only billed when the home network received an answer/charge signal from call recipient. The caller used the network resources to set up the call, it was transported correctly and the distant network delivered it and it rang out, but nobody was getting paid.

OFCOM agreed that instead of an answer/charge as the definitive charging point, it would be moved, so that as soon as the the originating network passed the call to the receiving network ‘the gateway’ this would be the charging point, NOT when the distant end answered. Calls handled wholly within the same network meant charging on answer happened as before, but with number portability, nobody can tell where the call will end up so they may or may not be a charge. Transparent s mud, eh!

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