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Version 134 in late June 2009 updates BT, 05pence (residential), Abroadcall (residential), AbroadTel (residential), Clever Rates (residential), First:Telecom (residential), PhoneBird (residential), Pipex HomeCall (residential), Post Office (residential) and Simply-Fone (residential).

BT has increased the cost of calling it's own 118 directory enquiry services, and the operator service charge.

The UK Telecom Tariff Cost Comparisons web site is moving from the Magenta Systems Ltd domain, to it's own http://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/ domain.  Both sites are currently duplicated with the same content, the old site will be dropped in a couple of weeks.  The new site uses a different back end server, which will ease many improvements planned for the next three months.  The only obvious difference at the moment is all pages with ASP URLs are now HTM instead.  For members, the login system has been improved so you will be remembered between visits and will only need to login once instead of separately for different parts of the site.  The main index pages now show if you are logged-in and allow log-off if the PC is shared. Logged-in members now have unrestricted access to Online CodeLook bypassing the daily usage restriction.

Version 133 in late May 2009 updates BT, 0844 Calls (residential), 118185.co.uk (residential), 1899.com (residential), ACN (residential), Call 18866 (residential), Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk (residential), Easy-Dial (residential), Orange (residential), Post Office (residential), Telecom Plus (residential), Virgin Media (residential), VoIPCheap (residential)  and Work-Phones (business).  Residential operators that are now offering free 0845 and 0870 calls if 01/02/03 are free (and usually the same cost as 01/02/03 otherwise) include BT, ACN, Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk, Post Office.  Note free 0845 calls exclude dialup internet and indirect access numbers.

BT has increased the cost of most standard business calls, that is calls from lines not opted into a discount scheme such as BT Business Plan.  Call set-up charge is up 2p to 7p per call, local and national calls up to 1p/min more, UK mobile up 1.2p/min, and international calls from 5p to 25p/min more. A one minute business national call now costs 16.99p before VAT. Strangely, national calls now cost almost 50% more than 0870.

Ofcom is reviewing possible changes to premium rate services, such as requiring pre-call announcements, for advertisements to include not just the BT cost of calling a number but also the name and cost of the most expensive provider (which may be double than of BT), improving the PhonepayPlus number checker to more easily identify service providers and maintaining a better registration scheme for parties in the supply chain to ease reputation checks.

Version 132 in late April 2009 updates BT, Adept Telecom (business), Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk (residential), Cheapest Chat (residential), Direct Save Telecom (residential and business), Pipex HomeCall (residential), PlusNet Home Phone (residential), Primus (residential), Simply-Fone (residential), Tiscali (residential), Vonage (residential), XLN Telecom (business) and Yourcalls.net (residential).  Sainsbury's is no longer reselling TalkTalk and has been removed.  Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk, Orange and Post Office all have increases due 1st June which will be published next month. Virgin Media was supposed to be increasing prices on 1st May, but nothing has yet been published nor have customers been informed of any changes.

Ofcom has announced new 0870 regulations that come into effect from 1st August 2009, when revenue sharing should cease and all operators should charge 0870 at the same price as 01/02/03 calls.  This is just the latest date published in the three years Ofcom has been trying and failing to change 0870 regulation.

BT has added another directory enquiry band that costs £3.60 for the first minute and another WIFI band. Most other operators now charge more than BT for non-geographic numbers such as 118, 0844, 0871, 09, etc, sometimes double BT's price. The new directory enquiry band costs £6 for the first minute by Pipex Homecall for instance.

Version 131 in late March 2009 updates BT, AOL Talk (residential), Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk (residential), HIGHnet (business), Kingston Communications, Post Office (residential), Scottish & Southern Energy (residential), Sky Talk (residential), Solwise Telephony (business) and Tiscali (residential).

BT has changed most residential tariffs from 1st April 2009, rounding many prices up or down to cleaner price points after the forced VAT reduction last December. Residential line rental has increased by £1/month to £12.50/month, or £11.25/month with paperless billing. Day time inland calls are up just over half a penny to 4.5p/min.  Most international calls are rounded down to the nearest half penny.  BT has abandoned it's oldest discount scheme Friends & Family, that variously offered 5, 10 or 20% discount off one, five or 10 commonly called numbers. Instead, International Saver has been renamed Friends & Family International, and Mobile Saver to Friends & Family Mobile, both offer cheaper calls for a low monthly fee. Connection cost for a new residential line has increased to £122.50 and the cost of calling features (such as Caller Display and Call Waiting) is increasing by 79p/month to £2.50/month each.

BT has added two more directory enquiry bands, and BT Business One Plan Traditional, a scheme similar to BT Business One Plan but no requirement to take BT Broadband or BT Mobile. Has a lower £200 annual spend tier with local calls at 3.5p/min, £500 is 2.7p/min, inland calls price cap is 10p, UK mobile price cap is 25p.

A few operators have followed BT and increased rentals and UK call charges this month, others are following in May.

Version 130 in late February 2009 updates BT, Andrews & Arnold (business and residential), Continental Telecom (business), Liquid Telecom (residential and business), Localphone (residential), Lycatel (residential), Pipex HomeCall (residential), Tiscali (residential) and Virgin Media (residential).  Nildram Voice has been removed.  Toucan customers have been transferred to Pipex, so Toucan has been removed.

New indexes are now available for the main tariff comparison tables.  Each separate compared tariff is now indexed both alphabetically and by service type.  Calls to Pakistan are on the increase due to a tax increase by the Pakistan government. BT has added one more directory enquiry band, but otherwise it's quiet before many residential changes due from 1st April 2009.

From 1st August 2009, 0871, 0872 and 0873 numbers, and 09 numbers charged between 5p and 10p per minute, will all be regulated as premium rate services by PhonepayPlus (aka ICSTIS) so the cost of calling them should be identified in advertising, promotional literature and signage, and complaints about misuse may lead to refunds. 

Version 129 in late January 2009 adds Calls Discount (residential), Crazy Cheap Calls (residential), and updates BT, Adept Telecom (business), AOL Talk (residential), Callserve (residential), Cheapest Chat (residential), Coms.Com (business and residential), Direct Save Telecom (residential and business), Euphony (residential), First:Telecom (residential), Lycatel (residential), Orange (residential), Primus (residential), Simply-Fone (residential), Sipgate (residential), Sky Talk (residential), Skype (PC only residential), SuperLine (business and residential), Telecom Plus (residential), Tesco (residential), Virgin Media (residential), and Your Connection (business). 

From 16th January 2009, BT increased it's residential call set-up charge from 6.85p to 8p (inc VAT), so most chargeable calls increase in cost by over 1p per call. This is the second increase in four months.

At the same time, most 0845/0870 calls will now be free for the first 60 minutes if the residential package offers free 01/02/03 calls. Lower cost or free 0845/0870 calls are limited to 1,000 minutes or 150 calls per month, before higher pricing resumes. The 0870 price reduction was mandated by Ofcom over three years ago, but has been repeatedly delayed due to complaints by operators making massive profits from 0870 numbers.

Version 128 in late December 2008 updates BT, 0844 Calls (residential), 118185.co.uk (residential), 1899.com (residential), ACN (residential), AOL Talk (residential), Axis Telecom (business and residential), Call 18866 (residential),Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk (residential), Direct Save Telecom (residential and business), Eclipse (residential), FreeCall (residential), ICUK (residential), Kingston Communications, Pipex HomeCall (residential), Phone Co-Op (residential), PlusNet Home Phone (residential), Post Office (residential), Sainsbury's (residential), Scottish & Southern Energy (residential), Sky Talk (residential), Telesavers (residential), Tiscali (residential), Virgin Media (residential), WebCall Direct (residential), Yourcalls.net (residential) and Your Connection (business).  Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk Business is now known as Opal.  Voice Trading has been removed because it no longer sterling prices, only Euros. 

The prices of all residential tariffs and call costs were initially automatically reduced to reflect the new 15% VAT level introduced from 1st December 2008, for the next 13 months only, and then adjusted for specific operators.  From January 2010, VAT will return to it's previous 17½% (or maybe even higher).  Operators vary about their approach to the lower VAT rate.  Many are passing the cut on in full (including BT, Pipex, PlusNet, Post Office, Tiscali, Scottish & Southern Energy), others are reducing call prices only to keep nicely rounded monthly package and rental prices (Virgin Media, TalkTalk), some are ignoring the VAT reduction and effectively increasing prices (AOL, Finarea).  None of the call though operators appear to have adjusted their published prices to reflect the lower prices being charged by BT, but may argue their pricing is simply rounded to the nearest whole penny.  But this comparison has always tried to show prices rounded to two decimal places, so the lack of accurate pricing may lead to changes been missed. 

Ofcom is planning to introduce new 116 pan-European helpline phone numbers, that will be free of charge.  116000 will be for missing children, 116111 children's helpline and 116123 emotional support helpline.  Ofcom, advised by the government, will choose suitable organisations for allocation of these numbers.

Paid site members should note the main tariff spreadsheet is now Excel 97-2003 format, and there are minor formatting differences needed for a new automated web site creation system used this month.  In coming months this new system will allow long overdue radical improvements in site design.

Version 127 in late October 2008 adds Continental Telecom (business), Gold Telecom (business), Phonestar (business) and updates BT, Demon (business), Kingston Communications, Pipex HomeCall (residential), Tiscali (residential), Skype (PC only residential), XLN Telecom (business) and Yourcalls.net (residential).  Equitalk, SchoolTel, Telstra and Your Connection have been removed for old tariffs, Your Communications was taken over by Thus a while ago and so has been removed.

BT has increased business line rental by about 3.5% to £14.87/month for analogue, £16.48/month per ISDN-30 channel and £33.63/month for ISDN-2e, all plus VAT, from 1st November 2008, Featureline rental has also increased. 

The Number 118118 directory enquiry service has raised it's cost again by moving to new band DQ105 costing 69p set-up and 29p/min by BT, but up to 35% more by some other operators, 95p set-up and 45p/min by Tiscali, and £1.17 set-up and 47.5p/min by Pipex Homecall, for instance. Most other directory enquiry services have also moved to more expensive bands in the past few months, BT 118500 is now DQ103 costing 23p set-up and 64p/min.

Ofcom has yet again deferred reducing the cost of calling 0870 numbers, and now aims to publish a further statement on implementing any changes to 0870 policy by the end of the year, almost three years after it's original decision to stop 0870 being used as premium numbers.

Version 126 in late September 2008 updates BT, 118185.co.uk (residential), 1899.com (residential), ACN (residential), AOL Talk (residential), Axis Telecom (business and residential), Call 18866 (residential), Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk (residential), Coms.Com (business and residential), Euphony (business and residential), First:Telecom (residential), Kingston Communications, Phone Co-Op (residential), Saga (residential), Sainsbury's (residential), Scottish & Southern Energy (residential), Sky Talk (residential), Telecom Plus (residential), Tesco (residential), Tiscali (residential), Toucan (residential), Virgin Media (residential), Vonage (residential) and Yourcalls.net (residential).  Auracall, Swiftnet, and XFone have been removed for old tariffs.  Telappliant VoIPTalk is no longer marketed directly to residential customers. Bulldog customers have been migrated to Tiscali or Pipex so it has been removed.

Virgin Media has increased standard international prices for the second time this year, so calls to the USA have now doubled in price to 20p/min, and most off-peak prices are now double or triple BT, being the least competitive in the comparison.  

Version 125 in late August 2008 adds Fused Webcalls (business) and updates BT, 05pence (residential), 0844 Calls (residential), Abroadcall (residential), AbroadTel (residential), Call Happy (residential), Call2Call (residential),  Carphone Warehouse TalkTalk (business), Cheapest Calls (residential), Cheapest Chat (residential), CherryCall (residential), CountryCall (residential), Dial Around (residential), DialWise (residential), Discount Dial (residential), Eclipse (residential), Kingston Communications, Liquid Telecom (residential and business), Localphone (residential), Lycatel (residential), My Mondo (residential), NetCalls4Less (residential), Nildram (residential), Pipex HomeCall (residential), Phone Cheap (residential), Phone Co-Op (residential), PhoneBird (residential), Post Office (residential), Qdial (residential), QX Telecom (residential), RateBuster (residential), Simply-Fone (residential), Sky Talk (residential), TeleTop (residential), Telesavers (residential), TopUpNow (residential), TopUp2Talk (residential), Vectone (residential) and WebCall Direct (residential).  Lansdowne Telecom (business), Lo-call Telecom (business), MCI (business), MegaCalls (residential), Nomi (residential), ntl:Telewest (business), OneBill Telecom (business), Opal (business), Primus (business) and Qualicom Aspire (business), have been removed for old tariffs.

Many operators have been increasing costs to Pakistan recently due to the Pakistan raising the tax (Settlement Rate) on incoming calls from US$0.025 to US$0.10 per minute (about 1.25p to 5p/min).  Operators already charging 10p/min or more for Pakistan might be able to absorb the increased tax, but better value operators need to increase the call cost.  Historically, most countries taxed incoming international calls and this cost was one reason for the high cost of calling many countries.  In recent years such taxes have been reduced (India from US$0.10 to US$0.05) or removed, and with the use of the internet to deliver overseas calls, costs have fallen.  It's why you can call China or the USA for the same price (or less) as a UK call from better operators.  Cuba is a notable exception, being the most expensive country by several fold.

BT is increasing the residential call connection cost from 6p to 7p, from 16th September 2008, which is reflected in this update.  The domino effect means other operators that closely follow BT pricing will be following, Carphone Warehouse from 1st October, and Post Office from 7th September (but only to 6p, and making UK weekend calls free).  BT is reducing charging for the residential Mobile Saver scheme to 7.5p/min 24/7, which will be the cheapest way of calling a UK mobile peak time (but Carphone Warehouse is dropping to 7p/min in October).