BT currently quote rates of between 10.66p per minute and 22.2p per minute for calling mobile phones.

This is in addition to their call set up fee which is currently 8p per call (and due to rise soon).

Therefore a 1 x minute call to a mobile phone would cost at least 18.66p.

There are discount packages available from BT and other providers, but as a general rule it is difficult to get mobile calling costs much below 10p per minute.

The Consequence:

For some businesses the cost of calling mobiles is a significant financial burden.

For example, small taxi firms usually advertise a landline number in Yellow Pages, but often their office is unmanned and the landline number is programmed to divert to one of the driver’s mobile numbers.

Every incoming call that is diverted to a driver’s mobile is charged to the taxi firm as a call to a mobile phone on their BT landline bill.

I have come across some taxi firms with monthly phone bills in excess of £300 of which 90% can be attributed to diverted mobile calls.

The Solution:

Taxi firms and other businesses can reduce the cost of calling mobile phones by installing a Mobile Network Gateway.

A Mobile Network Gateway connects to a phone, or an office phone system, and routes calls over one of the mobile networks rather than a BT line.

Some automatically detect calls to mobile phones, others rely on the caller or the phone system deciding what calls should be routed over the mobile network.

Like a mobile phone, a Mobile Network Gateway contains a sim card and an antennae and is connected to one of the mobile network tariffs.

For example, if a Mobile Network Gateway has an Orange sim card it could be connected to a sim-only (ie no phone supplied) Orange deal that offers 1,250 inclusive minutes to mobile phones or landlines for £50 per month.

1,250 minutes to mobile phones at 10p per minute would cost £125 if they were made over a landline.

The mobile network gatway therefore offers a potential saving of £75 per month.

There may be greater savings on other networks such as T-Mobile or Vodafone with tariff plans that suit users that do not require as many as 1250 minutes.

Mobile Network Gateways are available for less than £100 and can therefore pay for themselves very quickly.

They are also available with various degrees of sophistication.

The taxi firm used in the example above would be interested in a Mobile Network Gateway that would automatically divert incoming landline calls to a mobile number that could be changed remotely when the taxi driver’s changed shifts.

Next Steps:

Please contact me if you are interested in finding out more about how a Mobile Network Gateway could save you money.

My experience is that it is necessary to look beyond the headline call rates and discount schemes because of hidden charges like call set up fees and minimum call charges.

My preferred provider keeps things simple by having a low basic call rate and doesn’t have discount schemes or call set up fees.

They currently charge 1p per minute for local and national calls with a minimum call charge of 1p.

Their charges for mobile calls are 9p per minute with a minimum call charge of 3p.

Therefore when I analyse a phone bill the key figures that I need are total call duration and charges (after discounts) for local, national and mobile calls.

I then divide the total charges by the total call duration in minutes to get the effective per minute call rate for that customer.

It is important to note that two customers on the same call plan may have different effective call rates because they have different calling patterns.

For example, two customers with the same total call duration will have different bills if one makes lots of short calls and the other makes fewer, but longer calls.

Once I have the effective call rate for a customer I can compare it with that of my preferred provider.

I can also assess whether devices that can reduce call charges such as a VoIP gateway or a mobile phone gateway would benefit my customer.

Please contact me if you want advice on reducing your business phone call charges.