Talk more for less

YOUR telephone bill doesn't need to break the bank - not even if you have a teenager or two in the house.

The market for landline telephone calls has probably never been more competitive, with a string of telecom companies queuing up to offer low-cost calls.

The savings can be huge - up to 90 per cent or even more - with calls to anywhere in the UK, at any time of day or night, for just 1.4p a minute, for example, and international calls to Australia, the United States, Russia or China for 1p a minute (compare that to the 21p a minute for calls to the US with BT Standard).

To take advantage of many of these low-cost call rates, you do not even have to change your telephone supplier - you simply dial an "access" code before dialling the number you want to call from your own phone at home.

However, most people are unaware of these cheaper alternatives. Twenty years after BT was privatised, it still has 70 per of the total market and 75 per cent of the domestic market for calls.

That could be about to change. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee this week published a report calling on the telephone regulator, Ofcom, to do more to help consumers take advantage of the increasing competition in the telephone industry.

The report said the market was confusing for consumers and many did not have the right information to identify the best deal. Many were not taking advantage of opportunities to save money.

It said the best way to take advantage of competition was to switch supplier or tariff, and called on Ofcom to encourage consumers to do so.

Tory MP Edward Leigh, who chairs the committee, said: "Many consumers are not getting as good a deal as they could on their telephone bills. They could save money by either switching supplier or changing their tariff.

"It is unacceptable that BT retains around 70 per cent of the total market 20 years after privatisation. There is no doubt that consumers find the telecommunications market confusing and need more help to make properly informed choices.

"(The regulator) must back up its claims to place the consumer at the heart of its work by disseminating guidance on how to identify the best supplier and drawing public attention to the savings available from switching."

Ofcom defended itself this week, releasing a statement in which it pointed out it had only recently taken over from Oftel as telephone regulator, and stressing it was undertaking a Strategic Telecoms Review which would look at the kind of consumer information issues raised by the committee. A spokesman for Ofcom agreed, however, that significant savings were possible if people shopped around.

It is easy to make savings. For those wishing to make cheaper calls, Ofcom recommends the uSwitch website, at www.uswitch.com. The website allows you to compare and contrast various suppliers and discount telecom companies, and promises savings of up to 90 per cent on phone calls.

It is easy to use. Simply click on the home phone section, fill in an on-line form giving details of where you live and the kind of phone calls you make, and it will identify the best supplier for you.

My own family makes regular long phone calls to China and Canada (we probably spend about two hours a month on the phone to China) - and a quick search on uSwitch revealed we could save over £2,000 a year on standard BT rates by using any one of four other suppliers. Best result was Just Dial's Standard Online plan, which would see our bills slashed from £2,482 using BT Standard to £299.05, a saving of £2,183.90. Several other suppliers were nearly as good - with Superline, which doesn't require you to use the internet to make phone calls, we could save £2,079.58.

The savings are not there only for those who make lots of international calls. A colleague, who makes only occasional calls to Amsterdam (about 30 minutes a month) and South Africa (about 15 minutes a month) worked out he could save well over £100 a year on his mainly local and national calls.

It is possible to make even bigger savings. Using Superline, the supplier recommended by uSwitch, it would cost us 6p a minute to phone China, and 2.3p a minute to make local calls. Using a company called Telediscount, however (www.telediscount.co.uk), we can call China (and Australia and the US) for a staggering 1p a minute at evenings and weekends. We use our own telephone at home, for which we pay line rental to BT as before, and simply dial in an "access" number before making the international call. And using UKcall.com (www.ukcall.com) we can make phone calls anywhere in the UK, at any time of day, for just 1.4p a minute.

An internet search revealed a host of other operators offering equally competitive rates. Which operator is best depends on whether you want to make local, national or international calls, and whether you are calling another landline or a mobile number.

Cost per minute of a call to the United States

BT Standard - 21p

Telediscount - 1p.

Representative indirect access operator - 3p.

Updated: 08:47 Thursday, March 25, 2004