The true cost of “Free Phone Calls”
August 4, 2008
Is there such a thing as a free phone call?
I’ve spent much of my career delving into telephone bills and proposals calculating the true cost of “this week’s offer” and I think the answer to the question is “NO”.
I was inspired to write this entry after looking at the “Free Laptop” offers that some of the residential broadband providers are offering at the moment. Maybe the question should be “Is there such a thing as free?”
I am a very pedantic person and look into fine print and fine detail with everything I do that costs money and I do believe that somewhere and somehow you always pay for “free”. I also believe that the true cost of free phone calls is rarely transparent and the advertising is often brilliant, even BT would have you believe that they are cheap.
Companies like Vonage offer free calls but charge a monthly fee for the service. Many companies offer free calls between your offices and some even offer free calls to UK landlines. On the surface of it it’s all true and if you only make B2B calls to your own offices and to UK landlines then this is without doubt the right thing for you. However, if you call mobiles and 08 numbers (0844, 0845, 0870, 0871) then you’ll find inflated charges on those to supplement your free calls or a monthly fee or a commitment to buy something else. Another way that cheap or free calls are achieved is to offer “Broadband Phone Calls”. You may be familiar with Skype or Google Talk which are similar free services. Whilst call quality is improving, I’d still question whether or not I’d risk making or receiving my business calls on a broadband phone service, for me it’s still just a little bit too risky. Not so bad for speaking to colleagues but I suspect my customers would take a different view.