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September 29, 2005
News! UK Small Businesses Can Slash Telephone Calls Using VOIP
British Telecom (BT) has drastically cut its VOIP prices to undercut Skype. Small businesses can now contact international prospects and customers in Australia, USA and other destinations paying 0.5p per minute over a BT openzone hotspot shelved.
The price cutting move by BT is clearly a strategy to limit the damage of customers switching to Skype. What this has done is to make the VOIP market red hot.
Gavin Patterson, MD of BT's Consumer division, confirmed that the price cut is an effort to prevent providers of Internet telephony tempting BT customers away with cheap calls.
Many tech companies are hurrying to get a piece of the "VOIP action", with several companies making their intentions clear towards voice over IP only this week.
DSG, owners of Currys and Dixons, has unveiled a VoIP venture, under the brand FreeTalk. FreeTalk will sell 'adapters' in DSG-owned stores providing users free UK fixed-line calls for twelve months over VoIP including cheap international calls, and as an alternative, charging a monthly subscription fee of £6.99 for the same deal.
DSG is the first company that will be selling tangible VoIP products on the UK high street.
FreeTalk will face competition from two other new entrants to VoIP, including Ebay's Skype and Vonage.
Onetel has launched Just Dial, with a £1.99 monthly subscription combined with free evening and weekend calls or £4.99 for free calls any time. Onetel will also be selling adapters for phone-fond VoIP users.
ISP PlusNet has also launched a VoIP service, PlusTalk, offering a range of calling packages with prices starting at £2.99 for a monthly subscription.
Wanadoo revealed its subscriber numbers today. The France Telecom-parented provider, which launched its internet calling package in March, has signed up 50,000 users.
The ISP said nearly half of its new broadband subscribers are choosing to use VoIP now and each of Wanadoo's VoIP users is making around 150 minutes of calls per month.
In the race to win customers Ebay's Skype has a ready customer base of ebay merchants that numbers 60 plus millions and growing. As Ebay develops its strategies to capitalise its investment in Skype the telephony industry is about the witness change that's comparable with the Internet revolution. This spells good news for small businesses.
David
Small Business Resource
Posted by David at September 29, 2005 2:27 PM
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