clive@x.co.uk (Clive Feather) (11/07/90)
[More material from my British Telecom phone bill inserts.]
I thought US readers might like to compare their phone costs against
ours! Here is a complete list of British Telecom charges for
installation, rental, and calls. It does not include equipment rental,
as that is a free market (for example, of the three phones in my house
(all on one line), one is a Taiwanese phone I was given as a birthday
present, one is a UK made answering machine bought in a typewriter
shop, and one is a BT made phone bought in a department store).
All numbers are in pounds sterling, and exclude Value Added Tax at
15%. For US readers, this means that the number 1.00 means about
$2.25. Note that BT bills quarterly, not monthly.
====
British Telecom charges from 1 September 1990.
Installation (including up to 100 man-hours of work):
Residential Business
New customer, new line 129.26 141.65
Existing customer, new line 110.78 123.20
Take over existing line 19.65 19.65
Rental per quarter:
Residential 17.13
Residential party line 15.69
Business 27.75
If a residential user uses less than 120 units (see below) in a
quarter, then the rental is reduced by 0.058 per unit below this
number. This will reduce the rental to 10.17 or 8.73 per quarter if no
outgoing calls are made.
Star services (all per quarter):
Tone dialling FREE (US readers please note)
Call Diversion 3.48
Call Waiting 3.48
Three-way Calling 3.48
Code Calling 3.48 (free if the above three services are all taken)
Call Barring 6.09
Charge advice 0.05 per call
Reminder call 0.10 per call (even if not answered)
Dialled calls are charged in units. Each unit buys a certain amount of
time, depending on the time of day and the distance between the two
parties. A billed unit costs 0.044. From a BT payphone, a unit costs
0.10 (but this includes VAT).
Inland calls:
There are three time bands and 7 distance bands. The time bands are:
P (peak) Monday to Friday 0900 to 1300
S (standard) Monday to Friday 0800 to 0900 and 1300 to 1800
C (cheap) All other times
The distance bands are:
L The same area code and adjacent area codes
a All other calls less than 56.4 km
b1 Calls over 56.4 km where Mercury are a serious commercial threat
(some 232 bidirectional routes, of which 125 are to/from London)
b Other calls over 56.4 km
m Calls to mobile telephones
I Calls from Great Britain to the Irish Republic
p1 Premium rate services (US 900 numbers)
Distances are between a nominal point in each area code, not the actual
subscribers.
Calls between Great Britain and Northern Ireland are at rates b1 or b.
Calls between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic are at rates L, a,
b1, or b as appropriate.
The non-distance based calls are as follows:
Dialling code 0800 is free calling.
Dialling code 0345 is billed at rate L.
Dialling code 0055 is billed at rate a.
Dialling code 0066 is billed at rate b.
Dialling codes 0030 to 0039, 0077, 0860 are billed at rate m.
Some calls with dialling codes 0831 and 0836 are billed at rate m.
Dialling code 0898 is billed at rate p1.
The time bought for one unit, in seconds, is:
C S P
L 240.0 85.0 60.0 from normal phones
L 120.0 85.0 60.0 from payphones
a 81.8 35.1 26.25
b1 51.5 31.0 23.25
b 38.8 24.8 18.6
m 12.0 8.0 8.0
I 10.8 8.0 8.0
p1 9.2 6.9 6.9
International:
There are 13 distance bands (each country belongs to one band). Those
bands marked "(only)" include only the countries named. Otherwise the
countries listed are examples.
1 All European Community countries, Switzerland
2 Austria, Hungary, Sweden
3 Turkey, Libya, Iceland
4 (only) USA and Canada
5 (only) Other NANP countries (i.e. +1 809)
6 Australia, New Zealand
7 (only) Hong Kong and Singapore
8 Cuba, Romania, South Africa, USSR, Qatar
9 Israel, Egypt, Syria
10 Brazil, Panama, Namibia, Iran
11 (only) Japan
12 (only) India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
13 Angola, Bolivia, China, Fiji, Vietnam, North Korea, South Korea
Most distance bands have a Standard time band and a Cheap time band.
Calls to the NANP (bands 4 and 5) have a Peak rate between 1500 and
1700 on Monday to Friday.
The time bought for one unit, in seconds, is:
C S P Duration of Standard time band
1 9.00 7.20 0800 to 2000 Monday to Friday
2 6.65 5.45 0800 to 2000 Monday to Friday
3 5.15 4.35 0800 to 2000 Monday to Friday
4 5.15 4.35 3.95 0800 to 2000 Monday to Friday ) except 1500 to
5 4.68 3.95 3.59 0800 to 2000 Monday to Friday ) 1700 (Peak rate)
6 3.80 3.05 0700 to 1430 and 1930 to 2400 daily
7 3.80 3.05 0800 to 2000 daily
8 3.55 2.90 0800 to 2000 daily
9 2.68 2.30 0800 to 2000 Monday to Friday
10 2.65 2.25 0800 to 2000 Monday to Friday
11 2.26 2.15 0800 to 2000 daily
12 2.22 2.15 0800 to 2000 daily
13 2.19 2.15 0800 to 2000 daily
Payphones:
Payphones (COCOTs to US readers) require a meter pulsing service,
which costs 6.08 per quarter. BT rent payphones at rates from 32.17 to
102.17 per quarter, or you can buy payphones for 150.00 or so. To
quote the leaflet:
"Call charges from some BT rented payphones may vary. In such cases the
renter is required to display a notice near to the payphone stating the
maximum price for certain types of calls and his or her name and
address."
Clive D.W. Feather | IXI Limited
clive@x.co.uk | 62-74 Burleigh St.
Phone: +44 223 462 131 | Cambridge CB1 1OJ
(USA: 1 800 XDESK 57) | United Kingdom