IDT (Toucan)-frontrunner to buy rival Homecall in the U.K.
Homecall has 500 thousand residential subscribers in England; it's a fixed-line operator (reseller); Broadband provider;
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Toucan, the telecom operator owned by Americas IDT has emerged as the front runner to buy rival Homecall owned by John Caudwell. Meanwhile Carphone Warehouse is still in poll position to snap up Centricas OneTel to merge with the companies fast growing TalkTalk service provider
theretailbulletin.com
toucantele.com
[Toucan (IDT), partners with T-Mobile in the U.K.
toucantele.com
3g.co.uk]
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BT has been forced to share their phone lines with other companies to use directly ------
Homecall has 500 thousand residential subscribers in England; it's a fixed-line operator (reseller); Broadband provider;
caudwellcommunications.co.uk
Homecall
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Homecall was one of the first of the new phone companies to set up in competition with British Telecom to offer cheaper calls. At the time this took people by surprise and they couldn't see how Homecall could undercut BT's phone call charges and still connect via a BT phone!
In the words of Homecall "Homecall is a service provided by Caudwell Communications Ltd. Homecall provides low cost telephone and broadband services to customers that have a BT landline. Caudwell Communications is part of the Caudwell Group which includes companies such as Phones4u, 20:20 Logistics, Cornerstone Resourcing, 4u, Dextra and Wizcom".
Homecall is available to anyone with a BT telephone line. What happens if you switch to Homecall is that your phone LINE stays with British Telecom, so you still pay the line rental and have the advantage that if there's any problems with the telegraph poles in the street, BT engineers will come and fix it. But the phone CALLS are done via Homecall, and as they are different to BT, they are allowed to charge different prices. Most of the Homecall charges are less than BT, although some might be more (see note at end of page about premium rate numbers). If you have your phone account with Homecall, this doesn't stop you from making select calls via BT (by putting 1280 in front of the number). That way you can choose (BT/Homecall) for each call, and you can have the best of both worlds.
Here are some examples as quoted by Homecall 2005:
• Up to 60% savings on international calls against BT
• Up to 20% savings on calls to mobile phones against BT
• Free calls between Homecall customers with Ring Round for Free, irrespective of call package
• £12.50 calling credit given for each customer recommendation to Homecall: recommend 8 friends = £100 calling credit
• Homecall’s off peak calls start at 5pm unlike almost all other telecoms companies that class off-peak as 6pm
There are various landline packages available, which include:
* Homecall 5p Everytime - make up to 90 minutes local and national calls at evenings and weekends for just 5p per call
* Homecall Hometime - unlimited local and national calls at evenings and weekends for just £6 per month
* Homecall Anytime - unlimited local and national calls at daytime, evenings and weekends for just £12.50 per month
And there are Broadband Internet packages as follows:
* Homecall Broadband Standard – 150K for only £19.99 per month, £17.49 if taken with a landline package
* Homecall Broadband Extra – 512K for only £24.99 per month
There is a special offer on at present (mid 2005) which Homecall explain as follows: "If customers sign up for both Telephony and Broadband together, customers can take advantage of free Broadband connection and free modem (worth £85). Plus, unlike many other Internet Service Providers, Homecall Broadband has no download limits!"
Homecall Broadband offers the following:
• You can use your phone line for voice, fax and high-speed internet - all at the same time.
• No need for new phone lines and unlike cable, you don't need an engineer to come and install it
• Free connection (worth £50)
• Free USB modem (worth £35)
• 5 email addresses
• 10MB email space per account
• Webmail - pick up your email from anywhere via the Internet
• Spam control - reduces unwanted e-mails
• 0845 dial-up access backup
• Up to 125 MB of webspace - build your own website
• Broadband and telephone calls all on one bill
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Background:
Homecall offers broadband-voice combo
October 1, 2004
Claire Woffenden
Billionaire businessman John Caudwell has unveiled a combined broadband and voice call package, which he claims is the best value offer in the UK.
The package from Homecall, the telecoms company owned by Mr Caudwell, costs £24.99 per month for a broadband internet connection and unlimited free phone calls. You need a BT phone line.
Available through Mr Caudwell's Phones 4u high street stores, it includes free connection and modem, five free email addresses, 125MB of web space, webmail and an anti-spam filter. There are no monthly limits on downloads.
John Caudwell, owner of Phones 4u said: “This is an unbeatable offer which represents best value to the customer. Phones 4u is no longer simply a mobile phone retailer – it can deliver a complete communications plan and is challenging the market to bring new and better levels of service to customers.”
“Broadband should be available cheaply for everyone in Britain who can access it and I want to make this a reality.”
Last month, Bulldog launched a combined broadband and voice call package that includes a 4Mbps connection and unlimited calls for £52 a mon
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(initially – Homecall =
Reach Telecom, but later rebranded as Caudwell Communications)
cw.com
Cable & Wireless provides Carrier Pre-Selection for Reach Telecom's Homecall Service
Cable & Wireless, the global telecommunications group, today (28 March 2003) announced that it is providing the state-of-the-art Carrier Pre-Selection (CPS) technology behind Reach Telecom's fast-growing fixed-line residential service, Homecall. Reach Telecom sells Homecall through the 350-plus Phones4U stores and aims to sign more than 400,000 customers during 2003.
Homecall offers a simple way for consumers to access cheaper phone calls without needing to enter PIN codes and prefixes or installing special boxes. Reach Telecom estimates that its average customer saves a significant 55 per cent on their phone bill in comparison with BT's standard rate calls. Reach Telecom launched Homecall in September 2002 and has already signed up 50,000 customers.
"We have seen a huge interest in the Homecall service," said Richard Warburton, product manager, Reach Telecom. "Consumers are looking for alternatives to BT and Reach Telecom intends to help meet that demand with no-fuss access to lower priced calls. Cable & Wireless is proving to be a very successful partner for our service. We chose Cable & Wireless as it offered us the best in all our criteria: the best CPS service, a reliable network and the best rates. We look forward to a long-term relationship."
The UK telecoms industry expects to reach a milestone of one million CPS lines by the end of this month* (March 2003). Reach Telecom joins more than 25 other organisations already signed up for Cable & Wireless CPS technology, including Tesco and Cable Direct.
"CPS has the potential to liberate the UK fixed-line residential market from near monopoly," said Andrew Sangster, senior vice president, Service Providers, Cable & Wireless. "Cable & Wireless is playing a significant supporting role in this, by providing what we believe is the most robust CPS solution on the market."
Cable & Wireless CPS technology handles connections automatically at the telephone exchange, avoiding the need for customers to select a supplier manually. It also uses Cable & Wireless' high quality global network and intelligent processes and systems to maintain a consistently reliable service. |
