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Business telephone providers

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

If you’re choosing a business phone package for your company, it’s important to get the right package and provider with services to suit you. (Updated 23/2/10)

	Call XLN Business 0800 652 4113	Call BT Business now 0808 189 1332	Call Primus Business 0800 036 0122	Call Plusnet Business 0808 189 1286
Monthly cost *	£9.99 Guaranteed cheapest deal	£14.45 500 free minutes	£9.49 Capped call package	£13 Includes voicemail
Min. contract	12 Months	24 Months	12 Months	12 Months
What's included?	Calls capped at one hour - Local and national calls are capped at 10p and mobile calls at 30p. Keep your current line and number.	Set up your phone line with BT and get 500 free landline minutes a month, 24/7 support and call management tools to help lower your business costs and bills	Price promise guarantee - cheap calls and line rental, 24 hour account management & your phone line will still be repaired and maintained by BT Openreach	Low cost calls to local, international and mobile numbers. Plus add unlimited daytime calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers for just £6 per month.
	Call XLN Business now 0800 804 8988	Call BT Buisness now 0808 189 1332	Call Primus Business now 0800 036 0122	Call Plusnet Business now 0808 189 1286

* Excludes VAT. Terms and conditions apply.

The kind of business phone package your company needs will depend on its size, as well as the type of business you are running. You’ll need to weigh up what exactly you’ll need from your services, and look at all the business phone providers to see which offer the best deals.

Many business phone providers will help you build a customised business phone package for your company, using a range of features. These could include individual phone lines and numbers for each employee, and call forwarding for when you’re out of the office.

You should also speak to your provider about extras like conference calls, an auto-attendant feature that puts clients through to the right extension without the need for a receptionist, and automatic forwarding if these are things your business needs.

Some providers will even offer additional mobile technology, such as a smart phones or mobile broadband.

Below is more information about some of the main business phone providers to help you make an informed decision before signing up.

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BT business phone

BT (0808 189 1332) is one of the UK’s largest business telephone providers, offering a number of different tariffs to meet the needs of all types of business.

You can get all the telecoms services your company needs from BT, including business landline and broadband bundles, additional lines for larger companies with more employees and Openzone wireless minutes for BT business mobile phone customers.

For companies signing up to a BT business phone and broadband tariff, BT also provides web hosting, networking services, business telecoms equipment and IT services.

TalkTalk Business phone

TalkTalk Business (0800 542 6900), the business telecoms arm of the Carphone Warehouse, provides business phone and broadband packages to more than 100,000 businesses in the UK. You can get broadband and landline options, mobile phones and mobile broadband, plus a range of value added extras for your business from TalkTalk Business.

If you need a new landline for your business, TalkTalk Business can help you save £128 with its free landline installation offer. Simply sign-up your company to one of its business phone and broadband bundles to qualify for the free landline installation.

TalkTalk Business’ business telecoms packages include broadband and landline bundles as well as standalone options, and it also offers web hosting and internet security, the choice of 0800 and 0845 business phone numbers and even memory cards and satellite navigation technology.

Primus business phone

Primus (0800 036 0122) offers call and line rental plans for businesses that can help your company make significant savings on its phone bills. Primus charges 52% lower for UK local calls, and 35% less for calls to mobiles compared to major providers like BT. So switching your business’ services to Primus could save you a lot each month.

Primus also gives you Indirect Access codes that route calls to the Primus global network via your current phone supplier, providing you with a cheaper way of calling landlines both in the UK and abroad.

International call rates are considerably less with Primus, offering major savings when calling Europe, North America and Australia, and Primus’ landline services can be bundled with mobile and broadband packages to suit your company’s needs.

Eclipse business phone

Business customers with Eclipse (0800 156 0516) can get a range of services with their phone package, including business broadband with web hosting and email, and phone and mobile data security applications. Subscribers will also get a dedicated customer support service; Eclipse aims to answer all calls within 60 seconds and fix any problems first-time, so you won’t have to call back.

You can save money on local, mobile and international calls with TalkMore Business, the Eclipse telephone service that is exclusive to its business broadband customers. It’s easy to switch your phone to this service, and you’ll be able to keep your BT phone line and number, but your calls will be billed by Eclipse.

When it comes to your business’ broadband needs, you’ll get speeds of up to 24Mb and can choose between Business broadband, Teleworker broadband, private DSL (letting home workers or smaller branch offices connect to the main office network remotely, in a secure way), SDSL (a dedicated line which offers high speeds and a completely secure connection to the internet), leased lines or a dial-up service. Eclipse offers a choice of modems and routers, including a wireless adapter if your computers aren’t wireless enabled.

Plusnet business phone

Plusnet (0808 189 1403), known for its cheap home broadband packages, now also offers a range of specialist business phone and broadband deals.

Plusnet business packages come with free spam and virus protection, and a broadband firewall. And international calls and calls to mobiles are cheaper than some other providers, so you can make great savings on your business phone bills.

You’ll also get a dedicated business customer support team. Plusnet’s target response times are just 30 seconds for telephone queries and four hours for online questions - and its Business Support Team aims to fix around 75% of problems first time.