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Showing our working: How we calculate how much you save on conference calls

Here at WHYPAY? we calculate how much money our users are saving on conference calls by comparing the cost of calling our 03 number (usually FREE) with the costs of calling 6 other popular conference providers in the UK.

Many alternative UK services provide a dial-in number that has a high per minute cost. WHYPAY? on the other hand provides a UK 03 dial-in number. The charges associated with an 03 number are the same as a bog-standard UK 01 or 02 number. This means calls are included in any free calls/minutes on ALL UK mobile and landline networks. Whether it’s unlimited daytime and evening minutes on a BT landline contract, or 4000 minutes per month on an EE mobile plan – calls to WHYPAY? must be included in your allowance.

We love transparency at WHYPAY? (it’s one of the reasons we’ve partnered with The Wonderful Organisation), and we wanted to clearly show our working when it comes to our estimated savings.

To calculate how much WHYPAY? users are saving on call charges, we assume callers are using a standard mobile or landline contract with some kind of inclusive calls/minutes, making their WHYPAY? conference call completely free.

Using the UK’s most popular landline and mobile networks, we check the standard call charges for dialling into 6 alternative conference services. Unlike WHYPAY?, none of the 6 alternative conference call providers offer dial-in numbers that can be free to call unless you pay a subscription fee. Where appropriate, we combine the network’s charges with any additional ‘service charges’ that alternative conference providers impose (more on service charges). This gives us an average per-minute cost for using one of the 7 alternative providers. For our overall savings figures, we multiply this average per minute rate by the number of minutes all of our conference callers generate each month/year. For more tailored savings, we calculate which network a caller is on and use their network charges to estimate how much they’ve saved on an individual basis. To estimate how much you could save based on your telephone network use the savings calculator.

Here’s our working out…

We found 6 alternative telephone conference providers by searching the web for things like “free conference calls” or “UK telephone conferencing”. Like WHYPAY?, most of these services are free to set up. But being free to call is a different kettle of fish!

 

Of these 6 alternatives, all of them provide an 084 number for dialling into conference rooms (some also provide a mobile shortcode, which we’ll explain later). But first, we work out the access charge for dialling an 084 number from a range of leading mobile and landline phone packages. We assume the call is made on a weekday during the daytime.

Access Charges

Mobile networks

*Information up to date as of 19 Dec 2019

Network Access Charge (Pence Per Minute)
Virgin Monthly 58
Virgin PAYG 36
EE Monthly 65
EE PAYG 44
O2 Monthly 55
O2 PAYG 55
Vodafone Monthly 55
Vodafone PAYG 45
Three UK Monthly 55
Three UK PAYG 45
Average: 51.3

Landline networks

*Information up to date as of 19 Dec 2019

Network Access Charge (ppm)
BT (UK calling plans & popular call prices) 20
Virgin Media (Talk packages) 11.25
Sky (Sky Talk Evening and Weekends Extra) 15
Plusnet (Evening & Weekend UK & Mobile Calls) 9.58
Talk Talk 12.5
Post Office 14
Average: 13.7

So, for our overall savings, we now have two average access charges for calling an 084 conferencing number. One for mobile networks and one for landline networks:

 

Mobiles

0

ppm

Landlines

0

ppm

 

For mobiles, charges seem very steep. But for landlines it’s not so bad, right? Well, that’s quite optimistic when you consider that the average conference call is around 40 minutes long. It’s perfectly possible for a single mobile caller to pay over £20 for one conference call. For landlines, you can easily pay over £5 for a 45 minute call. Many businesses have multiple callers participating, which of course multiplies the costs.

But…

Access charges form only part of the story. There’s also an additional ‘service charge‘, which is always combined with the access charge to form the total pence per minute rate. We also need to bear in mind that some of the conference call providers supply callers with a ‘mobile shortcode’: an alternative dial-in number for mobiles that doesn’t have an access/service charge and is charged at a flat rate (usually 15 pence per minute).

Service charges, mobile shortcodes and total ppm rates

For our overall estimated savings, we work out the average per minute rate for landlines and mobiles by adding the access charges and service charges together for each provider. If the provider supplies a mobile shortcode for mobile callers, we take that rate instead.

This gives us a realistic estimated per minute cost for a range of other conference providers, taking into account a range of mobile and landline networks…

*Information up to date as of 19 Dec 2019

Provider Service Charge (ppm) Rate for Mobiles (ppm) Rate for Landlines (ppm)
conferencecall.co.uk
0843 373 0843
(83000 for mobiles)
6.96 15 20.7
All Call
0844 473 7630
6.96 58.3 20.7
Buzz Conferencing
0845 545 5055
(8762763 for mobiles)
6.96 15 20.7
Conference Now
0844 581 9050
(8545505 from mobiles)
6.96 15 20.7
Easy Audio
0844 635 0034
5 56.3 18.7
Minglur
0844 5719 171
6.96 58.3 20.7
Average: 33.3 20.4

Our Final Savings Figures

The table above gives us a total estimated rate for each conference provider from a wide range of mobiles and landline packages.

The average of these, can then be combined with the total number of minutes we support at WHYPAY? to estimate how much money has been saved.

 

Average rates for alternative providers

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ppm

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ppm

 

(Whopping) savings to be had

Each month we calculate how many call minutes our mobile and landline users generate in total. We combine this with the average mobile and landline rates above to estimate how much money our users save on conference calls.

Here are some examples…

2017

0

2018

0

2019

0

 

At WHYPAY? we’re very proud to provide so many people with completely free, reliable, quality conference calls. We’re proving that there really is such a thing as a free conference call. As for a free lunch, that’ll have to be another blog post.

 

Start conferencing with WHYPAY?

Create a FREE Teleconference

 

 

AdminShowing our working: How we calculate how much you save on conference calls
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