Phone Operators Access Charges – from 1st July 2015
9th June 2015
From July 1st 2015, calls to 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers will be made up of an Access Charge (the charge made by the phone company you make your phone calls with) and a Service Charge (this is the charge collected by your phone company and is passed to the service provider of the NGN you’re calling – for example, Planet Numbers).
This is to make it easier for consumers to understand the cost of calling non-geographic numbers.
Access Charges are always charged by the minute, and will normally be charged for a minimum of one minute, but should now not have any additional call setup cost.
This new charging rule applies only to residential customers. Business customers may continue to use the old charging scheme or the new Service Charges.
Click here to find out the cost of calling a specific 084, 087 or 09 ‘Service Number’
| Residential Access Charge | Rate per minute (inc VAT) |
|---|---|
| 3 Mobile | 25p |
| Asda Mobile | 8p |
| BT Retail | 9.58p |
| BT Mobile | 30p |
| EE Home Phone | 11p |
| EE Mobile | 44p |
| GiffGaff Mobile | 15p |
| Hyperoptic | 10p |
| John Lewis Broadband | 9.58p |
| Kingston Comms | 7p |
| Lebara | 25p |
| Lyca Mobile | 33p |
| Manx Telecom Landline | 10p |
| Manx Telecom Mobile (Contract) | 25p |
| Manx Telecom Mobile (Pay As You Go) | 30p |
| O2 Mobile | 25p |
| Phone Co-Op | 7.2p |
| Phone Co-Op Mobile | 21p |
| PlusNet | 9.58p |
| Post Office | 9.5p |
| Post Office Mobile | 30p |
| Sainsbury Mobile | 15p |
| Sainsbury Mobile | 15p (unconfirmed) |
| Sky | 9.5p |
| SSE Energy | 6.9p |
| Talk Mobile | 20p |
| TalkTalk | 5p |
| TalkTalk Mobile | 20p |
| Tesco Mobile | 25p |
| Utility Warehouse landline | 9p |
| Utility Warehouse mobile | 20p |
| Virgin Media | 10.25p |
| Virgin Mobile | 36p |
| Vodafone Home Phone | 10p (unconfirmed) |
| Vodafone | 23p to 45p |
| Zen | 8p |
In the past, many operators have added a surcharge to calls to non-geographic numbers, which could cost significantly more, so these new Access Charges will reduce the variation in call costs between operators.
| Business Customers Access Charge | Rate per minute (exc VAT) |
|---|---|
| BT Business | To Be Confirmed |
| BT Wholesale | 2.876p |
| Hyperoptic | 10p |
| IDNet | 5p |
| PlusNet | 7.98p |
Business tariffs may continue to use the old charge bands instead of Access and Service Charges.
Am I correct that, from 1st July as a BT landline customer, our charge to access your (excellent) service is going up from 1.02p/min to 9.58p/min? Or can you provide a cheaper access number?
If so, this is a blatant attempt by Ofcom to favour landline operators over companies such as yours.
B Parker 13th June 2015 at 12:01 pm
We are now offering customers a way of continuing to make cheap international calls, avoiding these costly Access Charges levied by the big phone operators. Please see our new account service: https://planet-numbers.co.uk/cheap-international-calls/ – click the tab “Create an Account” to register. You then can use a landline or freephone access number. It’s PIN-less too, so really easy to use.
Robin James 15th June 2015 at 11:19 am