If you are a BT customer, be on your guard! BT is warning customers about a series of phone scams involving people claiming to be calling from the company. If you are targeted, the scammers will call you and warn that your account is in arrears. They then ask for bank or credit card details to settle the account. If you ask for proof or refuse to pay, the fraudsters then offer to prove who they are by disconnecting the phone line then and there. [...]

Essential Business Telecom Services Introduction Telecommunications technology – in all forms, and certainly not least in business – continues to advance at an alarming rate. Business people, today, are faced with a plethora of existing, convergent or entirely new technologies, and must make important, informed decisions to safeguard the future of their businesses. New telecommunications technologies, products and services must be suitable for conveying important business information, in the first instance, but must also offer immediate payback in terms of efficiency, flexible working and customer [...]

LLU stands for LOCAL LOOP UNBUNDLING The Local Loop connects your telephone socket or switchboard to the telephone exchange. In the past, this has always been owned by BT. Since telecom deregulation was introduced to break the BT monopoly and create free market competiton and a "level playing field", call traffic between telephone exchanges was allowed to pass over alternative networks. This is known as LCR or LEAST COST ROUTING. But historically BT always owned the last part of the connection and charge line rental [...]

It used to be that BT owned a monopoly on landlines, since they built up the infrastructure to supply them. A landline is the final connection from the BT Exchange to your premises, also known as the Local Loop. On 1st August 2006 Ofcom allowed other telecom companies to supply landline services. This is also called Local Loop Unbundling, or LLU. Other providers can now rent the LLU from BT and supply it to the customer themselves, usually at cheaper rates and sometimes as part [...]

On 1st August 2006, Ofcom, the UK Telecoms Regulator, ended the formal controls on the cost of phone line rentals and calls from BT. This leaves all phone companies (including BT themselves) free to set their own retail prices for consumers. So now you, not the regulator, are free to decide whether you think a phone company is good value or not, and can choose the right deal for you. Then keep checking it's delivering what you want, at the right price!