May 2012 UK landline providers are as many and varied as there are types of mobile phone, or species of device for connecting to the Internet. These days we can all connect to the cybernetic ether with just about anything and everything. And we can choose to buy landlines to help us do it from just about anyone and everyone. Example: every single mobile phone company you ever heard of. You know, the people with the masts, and the antennae, and the totally non landline services? Thanks to the world wide web, your landline provision is just as likely to come from a mobile phone provider as not. IN fact, you tend to find you get some of the best deals from these “non traditional” landline providers UK – because they’re viewing the market from a different perspective, or because they are aware that they are in competition with at least one huge and extremely long established rival (no names needed, one thinks?). Either way, getting your landline deals from companies that do mobile telephony often entitles you to all sorts of freebies: particularly if you are an existing mobile customer of the company in question.
Loyalty is repaid these days – at least by the cleverer mobile phone companies, and at least insofar as personal users are concerned. Businesses, on the other hand, are traditionally the butts of an ongoing practical joke that has been played with their communications needs since the year dot: the idea of the minimum charge. This is unfortunate, given that businesses are one of the few users left of actual landline phones: which means, of course, that they are getting done over on a regular basis and don’t even know about it. A great deal of business landline providers in the UK will happily tie their customers into punishing long term contracts and then litter their bills with all sorts of hidden charges – mostly because they know they can get away with it. For businesses, more than any other user, there’s a huge need to compare landline providers before taking the plunge. Unless, that is, those businesses don’t mind being charged as much as 75% too much for a local or national call.
The figures sound a little bit too overblown to be true, don’t they? Well, they are. A certain popular long running landline company (that nameless one again) is provably charging almost three times too much for some of its most basic services. Or, at least, it is charging nearly three times more than some of its smaller competitors. Thankfully, the concept of the free market is alive and well (ish) in the UK – and that means that you can at least choose from a multitude of landline providers in UK business, as long as you know where to look.