Why an important long distance phone call doesn’t have to cost a penny

Your business is probably faced with various outgoings for which you are investigating the possibility of wielding the axe… without, of course, sacrificing your corporate productivity. Phone calls can be a particularly heavy burden on your finances, especially if you often make overseas calls.

However, if you are clever about how you utilise your calling options, you can significantly reduce your calling costs – potentially even right down to… nothing. Here are some good reasons why.

What do you currently pay in call costs?

Your workers could have many incentives to pick up the phone – whether to interact with a client, arrange a business meeting, resolve a customer complaint… or, indeed, do one of many other tasks.

However, even a glance at your company’s average monthly phone bill could make your heart sink. That’s unsurprising considering that, for example, phoning an Australia-based contact could, each minute, cost you as much as 90p with BT or £1.50 with Vodafone, reveals MoneySavingExpert.com.

What are you supposed to do to slash such prohibitive charges? While many options can dramatically reduce your phone-related expenses to just a trickle of pennies per call, you might not have realised that free calls – even free international calls – are within your firm’s reach.

One magic word: VoIP

Does your company regularly communicate using a VoIP phone system? That system might even have originally been provided by our own team here at Planet Telecom. While there are many reasons to be excited by VoIP, you shouldn’t overlook its ability to facilitate free calls.

“Hold on,” you might be thinking, “‘free’ – as in, completely free?” Indeed. Your VoIP calls could even reach your contact on their computer or tablet – ideal if that person doesn’t happen to have their phone at close hand, as Tech Advisorpoints out.

Still, there is a crucial “but” to using VoIP services: they only remain free if both the caller and recipient are online. Sending a VoIP call to a standard phone would require you to pay.

Are you subscribed to an inclusive calling plan?

If so, check it to see if it includes calls to 0870 numbers. If it does, it will be possible for your business to make free international calls to hundreds of countries – provided that, before inputting the international number in question, you dial our 0870 access number.

That number in full is 08700 477 477 – and, to use it for making free international calls, you wouldn’t need to register an account with us or use a PIN. Neither would you need a Wi-Fi connection.

Various telecoms firms offer inclusive calls to 0870 numbers; you can see a comprehensive list of these companies on the Planet Telecom website. There, you can also see a lengthy list of countries to which free calls are possible through the 0870 route.

If your monthly phone bill doesn’t cover calls to 0870 numbers, we offer an alternative service whereby you can still make overseas calls much more cheaply than would be standard.