UK’s Tesco goes VoIP
p2p news / p2pnet: Tesco, Britain’s largest retailer which started life as a food supermarket, and which is already into consumer electronics, financial and internet service and telecoms, is now getting into the Net phone business.
It’s launching a new VoIPe service that’ll, "put it head to head with the U.K.’s current fixed landline leader with 19 million customers, BT Group," says Forbes.
In line with the company’s "famously lucratively expansion beyond groceries to non-food items," the company is, "now hoping customers will add its $35 handsets, using Voice-over-Internet protocol technology, to their shopping lists," says the story.
UK calls will cost 2p a minute with calls to Canada, US and Australia and to British mobiles costing 10p a minute, says Contractor UK., going on, "Tesco has shown that all of its tariffs for phoning the US, Australia, France and Canada are cheaper than BT’s off peak and peak charges, for customers on the telecom provider’s Together Option 1."
But Tesco’s costing model for Internet calls is less of a bargain than it may first appear.
“Tesco’s pricing is simple, but not particularly cheap – better offers can be found from other VoIP providers (including BT itself for certain types of phone call) so we would expect Tesco to have a longer-term pricing strategy in mind,” the story has telecoms analysist say Ovum saying.
Also See:
Forbes – Tesco’s VoIP Puts Leahy In The Ring With BT, January 20, 2006
Contractor UK – Tesco’s VoIP targets the masses, January 23, 2006
January 24th, 2006 at 5:03 am
This is just another money making scheme.
If you have broadband, this service should be free. In the end it’s just pushing more data across the copper wires, in the same way you do with your boardband connection, except for a fixed price per month.
The current broadband prices are Telephone line rental + broadband. Which adds up to around 25-30 pounds per month. The line rental is just an addtional charge for the same line service.
If you paided say 15 pounds a month for the line + broadband + calls using voip inclusive, that would be fair. Anything else is just making you pay multiple times for sending data down the same line.