Press & PR

Manchester-based telecoms firm Unicom has claimed that 90 per cent of small firms do not know that BT upped the cost of a business line last month.

An increase of five per cent on the cost of business line rental came into effect on November 1st, but Unicom suggests that BT is trying to sneak the price hike through unnoticed.

According to the firm's operations director Chris Earle, it takes a prolonged search of BT's website to uncover the change and few companies are informed about the increase.

"We asked 670 businesses did they know about BT's price increases - and 92 per cent said they did not. It's black and white: BT has hidden the price of increased line rental," he said.

Mr Earle pointed out that small businesses should keep a tight reign on their finances in order to succeed and suggested this price rise will therefore "come as a shock".

"We are utterly amazed that more businesses do not switch away from BT - it is an absolute financial no-brainer," he added.



Business customers can save of their fixed line voice calls by taking advantage of the internet and switching to web-based services, such as those offered by Vonage.

For the low fee of £5.99 a month, firms can make unlimited calls to the UK and Ireland on V-Plan 1, while there are other voice plans which include further territories abroad.