Confusedlanka customers ask us, How they can reduce their business telephone bill. As our team possess insider knowledge and the know how of the telecoms industry in Sri Lanka
We analyse many telephone bills and there are many ways in which telephone suppliers can maximise their profits and these are not always obvious to the un-trained eye when scanning your telephone bill.
Telephone service Providers
You may be asking yourself a question of how I can cut my call costs or reduce my phone call charges easily and quickly? Well, possibly the quickest way is to speak to your telephone provider and ask them for reduced call charge rates. It is very likely that they will agree to reduce your call tariffs. You would not believe what providers get away with sometimes charging customers. If the providers are not willing to come back to you, come back to us.
We analyse many telephone bills and there are many ways in which telephone suppliers can maximise their profits and these are not always obvious to the un-trained eye when scanning your telephone bill.
Telephone service Providers
You may be asking yourself a question of how I can cut my call costs or reduce my phone call charges easily and quickly? Well, possibly the quickest way is to speak to your telephone provider and ask them for reduced call charge rates. It is very likely that they will agree to reduce your call tariffs. You would not believe what providers get away with sometimes charging customers. If the providers are not willing to come back to you, come back to us.
In this area, confusedlanka.com has listed various comparison tables for you to make the right decision. From Prepaid mobiles to wireless broadband, you can compare the deals of all providers at a touch of a button.Telephone Bills
If you happen to be looking at the phone bill, you will probably be confused!! If you ask the provider for improved rates, they can be quite inflexible and may only be interested in making you agree to sign long-term telephone contracts for calls and line rental. This is how their sales people are targeted and it is not in your best interests in most cases! Also, remember that their marketing is very clever. They tempt you with great sounding things like 'capped calls' where you never pay more than Rs.1 for a call. Whilst this sounds excellent, the reality is that the average call lasts under 2 minutes anyway and you will pay much more for shorter calls due to their set-up fees!
At the very least you should have a phone bill review anually. Alternatively, here is a list of ways you can reduce phone bills and call charges.
Improve business phone call tariffs and call charges
Have a close look at your phone bill. If you are a small UK Business spending less than Rs. 5,000 per month, you should definitely be paying no more than the average rates:
Improve business phone call tariffs and call charges
Have a close look at your phone bill. If you are a small UK Business spending less than Rs. 5,000 per month, you should definitely be paying no more than the average rates:
If you are spending more than Rs. 5,000 per month, it should be easy to get even better call charges and rates!
Analyse the business phone bill
If your telephone bill does not tell you the phone call duration or it is not broken down into destinations, there will probably be a reason. The reason is that your telecoms provider may have done this intentionally in order to make it difficult for accurate comparisons to be made!! We suggest you ask for more billing information.
Ask your phone call and line rental provider to send you written confirmation of the following:
x Your full tariff for each phone call destination providing all call charges and rates
x Any minimum call charges or set up fees per call
x Any call discounts applied
x Any call discounts applied
x Whether they calculate phone call charges to the nearest second
x Whether they round up call charges to the nearest penny
x Whether they charge for each phone call by the minute or by the ‘unit’ – if it is ‘unit’ buyer beware!!
x Any capping they apply once your phone call has reached a certain duration
Any minimum contract you are obligated to (avoid long contracts)?
x What level of cover you have on each line?
Your call destinations
Look at the destinations you are calling. There is no point paying for great call charges on IDD if you are a private company without having negotiated good call charges to other possible destinations. This is sometimes where carriers can regain profits whilst ‘loss leading’ with main rates. Try to use VOIP if these are regular calls to foreign customers, suppliers or partners.
x Whether they round up call charges to the nearest penny
x Whether they charge for each phone call by the minute or by the ‘unit’ – if it is ‘unit’ buyer beware!!
x Any capping they apply once your phone call has reached a certain duration
Any minimum contract you are obligated to (avoid long contracts)?
x What level of cover you have on each line?
Your call destinations
Look at the destinations you are calling. There is no point paying for great call charges on IDD if you are a private company without having negotiated good call charges to other possible destinations. This is sometimes where carriers can regain profits whilst ‘loss leading’ with main rates. Try to use VOIP if these are regular calls to foreign customers, suppliers or partners.
Bundles - value for money Telecoms?
Beware of bundles! Whilst there are possibly good deals to be had on companies bundling telephone line rental, calls, broadband etc, we have found in the past that anyone with more than one service bundled with another only means that it is difficult to work out true costs. However, for home use, bundles may have certain advantages.
Bundles tend not to be available for business customers in
Review the business phone line
Have a close look at all the telephone lines and services you are paying for. Have you correctly identified them all (would you know where to start without a telecommunications expert)- and are they necessary? Can your connections be optimised by a business phone line review or by using different telecommunications technology?
Businesses tend to have several different types of telephone lines.
Your main voice lines which are connected to your telephone system should be easy to find on your bill. These will normally be described as PSTN main aux lines, ISDN2e or ISDN30 or DASS although DASS is now pretty uncommon and if you have it you need an upgrade!
If you have 10 phone lines do you really need 10? Does anyone complain that they cannot reach your business when they phone you or do you get complaints from staff about not being able to dial out?
What other business phone lines or telecoms services are you paying for? More often than not, businesses have too many different lines that have been ordered over the years by different people within the business (ie fax lines, franking machine lines, alarm lines, warehouse lines, lines for modems etc).
On many ocassions, we ask business owners and managers what each phone line is used for and they often don't know and the response is that this has been set up by the previous manager. If your manager tells you this excuse, he is not suitable to be on that position unless he was recently recruited. We have found businesses paying for old telephones or bells that they have not used for years!
Businesses tend to have several different types of telephone lines.
Your main voice lines which are connected to your telephone system should be easy to find on your bill. These will normally be described as PSTN main aux lines, ISDN2e or ISDN30 or DASS although DASS is now pretty uncommon and if you have it you need an upgrade!
If you have 10 phone lines do you really need 10? Does anyone complain that they cannot reach your business when they phone you or do you get complaints from staff about not being able to dial out?
What other business phone lines or telecoms services are you paying for? More often than not, businesses have too many different lines that have been ordered over the years by different people within the business (ie fax lines, franking machine lines, alarm lines, warehouse lines, lines for modems etc).
On many ocassions, we ask business owners and managers what each phone line is used for and they often don't know and the response is that this has been set up by the previous manager. If your manager tells you this excuse, he is not suitable to be on that position unless he was recently recruited. We have found businesses paying for old telephones or bells that they have not used for years!
Business Telephone line service levels
What service levels are you paying for? Any critical phone lines should have a certain cover with the line provider – otherwise, when there is a fault you could be waiting hours or days for resolution.
What service levels are you paying for? Any critical phone lines should have a certain cover with the line provider – otherwise, when there is a fault you could be waiting hours or days for resolution.
Cheaper broadband vs Faster Broadband!
Internet connections – when was the last time you re-negotiated your contract. If your connection is 3 years old, have you checked you cannot improve speeds and/or reduce costs? Recently, we spoke to a confusedlanka web visitor who was paying Rs. 100 per month on a PAYG basis for what they thought was a slow connection. They have now spoken to a different Internet provider after visiting confusedlanka.com comparison tables and they now spend a reasonable amount of money per month for a faster connection.
Internet connections – when was the last time you re-negotiated your contract. If your connection is 3 years old, have you checked you cannot improve speeds and/or reduce costs? Recently, we spoke to a confusedlanka web visitor who was paying Rs. 100 per month on a PAYG basis for what they thought was a slow connection. They have now spoken to a different Internet provider after visiting confusedlanka.com comparison tables and they now spend a reasonable amount of money per month for a faster connection.
Where are you spending your money?
How do you know who within your business is costing what? Can you get extension billing from your provider so you can see which person within your business is costing you the most money? If this is set up as a cost centre, you are able to easily see the cost. Telephone extension billing is normally free but not many carriers offer it. So ask for it.
How do you know who within your business is costing what? Can you get extension billing from your provider so you can see which person within your business is costing you the most money? If this is set up as a cost centre, you are able to easily see the cost. Telephone extension billing is normally free but not many carriers offer it. So ask for it.
Include home or remote workers on your telephone bill
Do you have home or remote workers? Are they included on your bill in order to benefit from your company tariff? If they use the phone a lot, have you considered giving them extensions off of your office phone system so that calls between the two parties are free - this is easier than you may think and probably cheaper - for example you may not have to replace your telephone system?
Even easier, include their telephone number on your phone supplier account so they can pre-dial when they make a business call. They will then benefit from the call charges that you have agreed with your phone supplier and each business call will be debited on your business phone bill saving you money on your calls and also reducing administration as they will not have to claim for phone calls on their expenses.
You could also take over their line rental so that they can just dial out as normal.
Do you have home or remote workers? Are they included on your bill in order to benefit from your company tariff? If they use the phone a lot, have you considered giving them extensions off of your office phone system so that calls between the two parties are free - this is easier than you may think and probably cheaper - for example you may not have to replace your telephone system?
Even easier, include their telephone number on your phone supplier account so they can pre-dial when they make a business call. They will then benefit from the call charges that you have agreed with your phone supplier and each business call will be debited on your business phone bill saving you money on your calls and also reducing administration as they will not have to claim for phone calls on their expenses.
You could also take over their line rental so that they can just dial out as normal.
Connect offices for free calls
Do you have more than one office? have you considered linking them for free calls – if there are a lot of calls between offices, this could be a major area of savings, which would effectively increase your borromline.
Do you have more than one office? have you considered linking them for free calls – if there are a lot of calls between offices, this could be a major area of savings, which would effectively increase your borromline.
Save money on calls to mobiles
Typically, 50-80% of your calls will be toSri Lanka
Typically, 50-80% of your calls will be to
Compare same network deals on confusedlanka.com
Mobile phone packages
Mobiles? When was the last time you reviewed your mobile package and your landline package together? If you do them separately, you are not looking at the whole picture!. Try to have a birds’ eye on your cost.
Mobile phone packages
Mobiles? When was the last time you reviewed your mobile package and your landline package together? If you do them separately, you are not looking at the whole picture!. Try to have a birds’ eye on your cost.
Switching telephones lines
Which carrier do you use? Are you still with SLT for lines and use another carrier for calls? The Sri Lankan telecommunications market place is very complex and it helps if you have a reasonable understanding of how it all fits together so you can make an informed decision.
Have you yet been tempted to move away from SLT? If so when and how do you know you are still getting a good deal?
Which carrier do you use? Are you still with SLT for lines and use another carrier for calls? The Sri Lankan telecommunications market place is very complex and it helps if you have a reasonable understanding of how it all fits together so you can make an informed decision.
Have you yet been tempted to move away from SLT? If so when and how do you know you are still getting a good deal?
Switch lines from cable companies
Are you on Cable? How do they compare now if you have been with them a while and do they deliver?
Are you on Cable? How do they compare now if you have been with them a while and do they deliver?
VoIP - Voice over IP
Are you tempted by VoIP because it is cheaper? Do you know what it is, really, and more importantly how it could help your business? Beware here as you really need to take good advice. The claims that you can save 30% on line rental, for example by using SIP, should be heavily scrutinised if you are to maintain quality!! Some people think that installing VoIP will mean you have no call charges! This is not the case! Visit confusedlasnka.com.
Are you tempted by VoIP because it is cheaper? Do you know what it is, really, and more importantly how it could help your business? Beware here as you really need to take good advice. The claims that you can save 30% on line rental, for example by using SIP, should be heavily scrutinised if you are to maintain quality!! Some people think that installing VoIP will mean you have no call charges! This is not the case! Visit confusedlasnka.com.
Hosted Telephony
Are your lines and calls with a hosted service provider? How is this going and are you really saving money and enjoying the functionality that you could have had with a more traditional service?
Telephone review
Does your telecommunications provider, agent or dealer regularly review all of this for you? Have they ever been to your premises? Have you ever met them? Most telephone providers will wait until you are threatening to leave until they offer you better rates!
Are your lines and calls with a hosted service provider? How is this going and are you really saving money and enjoying the functionality that you could have had with a more traditional service?
Telephone review
Does your telecommunications provider, agent or dealer regularly review all of this for you? Have they ever been to your premises? Have you ever met them? Most telephone providers will wait until you are threatening to leave until they offer you better rates!
Lastly, don’t get swayed by ridiculous claims like We can save you 40% on your bills. Such a claim cannot be made by anyone until a thorough review has taken place in the detail mentioned above.