jpp@specialix.co.uk (John Pettitt) (09/07/89)
Here is some info that may be of interest to Telecom readers. The tables below
contain the current (effective september 1989) charge tables for British
Telecom.
Charges is the UK are based on `units'. A unit costs 4.4 pence (5.06 including
15% tax). That's 7 and 8.09 cents respectivly at USD 1.60 to the Pound
Sterling.
All UK calls have supervision and one unit is billed for each unit of time or
partial unit of time between answer and hangup. No credit for partial units.
Time allowed in seconds for each dialled call unit fee of 4.4p (5.06p inc VAT).
Type of call Charge Rate Period
Cheap Standard Peak
Mon-Fri 6pm Mon-Fri 8-9am Mon-Fri
Sat & sun 1pm-6pm 9am-1pm
Local 330 85 60
National (a) 96 34.3 25.7
National (b1) 60 30 22.5
National (b) 45 24 18
Channel Islands
Isle of Man
Calls to
mobile phones 12 8 8
Irish Republic 12 8 8
(a) is up to 56.4 km (exchange to exchange)
(b1) over 56.4 km connected over low cost routes. [ direct quote ]
(b) over 56 km plus islands as listed above.
The above was taken from "Your Guide to Telphone Charges" BT publication
PH3827 (8/89). There is also a sister publication (PH3826) "Your
Guide to Apparatus Rental Charges".
The book also goes on to detail example calls of 1 thru 5 mins
at each rate and gives the international charge bands
Having at last got a list of BT charges I would be very interested to
compare this to the post-deregulation US. I suspect that we are being
charged rather more.
On another subject, does anybody know how the choice of LD carrier for
the US domestic part of international call is made ? BT have been
known to use both MCI and AT&T (I have had error recordings from both).
Do they use an others ? Is it some clever least cost system or is it
just a % split. I suspect that it's not least cost as I have had both
carriers on calls from London to Mountain View CA.
--
John Pettitt,
Specialix International
UUCP: {backbone}!ukc!slxsys!jpp
Internet: jpp@specialix.co.uk