9 October 2002 -- In a survey conducted by Isis, in association with O2 and Vodafone, among 100 UK companies it was found that more than 50% of the total call spend covered calls to UK mobile phones.
While national and international rates continue to fall, calls to mobile phones remain very high as a result of the current interconnect agreements between fixed carriers and mobile networks and between different mobile networks. The good news is that there are solutions to address this growing issue.
Commenting on the findings, Peter Johnston, MD of Isis, comments, "Calls to mobiles now represent an increasingly large proportion of overheads and this is an important area for cost reduction. For the vast majority of companies, calling a UK mobile phone is now more expensive than a call to South Africa or Japan, and more than twice the cost of a call to the USA. We have a number of ways to help companies to reduce this overhead and take control of spiralling telecoms costs."
The options include:
1. The simplest and quickest route to cost reduction is least cost routing via a carrier with competitive fixed to mobile rates.
2. Various mobile network products can reduce rates further by connecting mobiles to the PBX, thus creating an integrated mobile/fixed network. There are fixed and ongoing capital costs for this option but a simple cost-benefit analysis will determine the level of potential savings.
3. Most SMEs will not be able to justify the cost of VPNs but there are several lower cost options available, all of which can bring down the cost to the equivalent of a mobile-to-mobile call. A site survey and some straightforward analysis will determine the right option for a specific company site.