I am in the process of moving from BT to Plusnet to take advantage of a better deal.

BT wrote to me in an attempt to keep me and said i would lose this new offer which i didnt know existed . :o

See: http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/54053/~/learn-about-free-calls-to-bt-mobiles

NOTE: Calls will be free during your inclusive call periods - the times that you can call landlines for free. (So it'll be at the weekends if you've got Unlimited Weekend Calls, and any time you like if you've got Unlimited Anytime Calls.)

You won't be charged a set-up fee or a pence-per-minute charge

Plusnet offer calls to all normal  UK Mobile Numbers in their Inclusive Minutes.

Fair usage limit of 1,000 minutes  ( Evening and Weekend Bundle ) or 2,000 minutes (Anytime Bundle) applies. Hang up and re-dial before 60 minutes and you won't be charged.

One should always be mindful that it is easy to get carried away, seeing something could be regarded as too good to be true.

This is calls to BT Mobiles – which is of course what you state – but I think that it is worth emphasising. At first glance, I did interpret as being free calls to mobiles in general.

It begs questions as to how useful in practice this might be and how the caller might know whether the number they are calling is with BT Mobile.

How many people do you ask for their telephone number and the provider of the service they use? Not many, I would think.

Other providers have similar offerings, although these can be as standard with their service. This includes Plusnet and Utility Warehouse, which offer free calls to phones provided by themselves, for example.

These might be useful for calls to other family members whom are called often (free frequent inter-family calls), although to calls these numbers will be free anyway where the subscriber has an inclusive calls option in place. Where no inclusive package is in operation, such as with someone uses the telephone very little, then this will come into its own – so long as no one called switches provider, and fails to notify the caller of this.

If a particular person has been known to subscribe to a particular provider and moves away, the caller will be lumbered with a potentially big bill. This does act to the advantage of the provider who has lost a customer. Quite how profitable across all customers this might be, I'm not at all sure, but I feel it is worth noting nonetheless. The customer complaints department is certainly likely to receive communications from people in this position, particularly where the unexpected call charge is large.

Thus, "how useful in practice" offerings of this nature are can apply not only to the customer but to his/her call provider too, cynics might say.

As you point out BT are not the first 

UW  offer free calls to UW Landlines and UW Mobiles.

https://www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk/services/phoneandbroadband/phone

Plusnet only offer free calls to Plusnet Landline. Unless you buy inclusive call bundle.

https://www.plus.net/home-broadband/package-guides/phone

And Virgin Media and Talk Talk have similar offerings.

Wonder if it allows you to divert your calls from your BT landline to your BT Mobile at no call cost ?

Since the fairly recent drop in mobile termination charges, more landline phone providers are offering calls to mobiles as part of a package. For example Plusnet offer 24/7 calls to 01/02/03 and UK mobiles for (I think) £8 per month. As is common, calls that exceed 60 minutes get charged but you can hang up and redial.

I think the PN package still includes calls to 0845 and 0870 though this surely can't go on much longer.

The key to landline providers being able to offer inclusive calls to mobile numbers is the termination rate for those calls being lower than that for calls to 03 numbers. This has been the case since 1 April 2016.

allegro wrote on Feb 5^th, 2017 at 8:53am:

Since the fairly recent drop in mobile termination charges, more landline phone providers are offering calls to mobiles as part of a package. For example Plusnet offer 24/7 calls to 01/02/03 and UK mobiles for (I think) £8 per month. As is common, calls that exceed 60 minutes get charged but you can hang up and redial. I think the PN package still includes calls to 0845 and 0870 though this surely can't go on much longer.

 
Plusnet Call Bundles also  restrict the amount of mobile calls you can make as.mentioned in the original post.

Ian01 wrote on Feb 5^th, 2017 at 9:55am:

The key to landline providers being able to offer inclusive calls to mobile numbers is the termination rate for those calls being lower than that for calls to 03 numbers. This has been the case since 1 April 2016.

.   

I wonder why BT still dont offer them in  landline call bundles despite saying they were going .to.

bigjohn wrote on Feb 5^th, 2017 at 10:53am:

I wonder why BT still dont offer them in  landline call bundles despite saying they were going .to.

Because they are BT and they do as they please.  Ever since they decided to get involved in Sport their prices rose and rose... long gone are they days of inexpensive line rental charges (now nearly £20)... because someone has to make a profit somewhere....

CJT-80 wrote on Feb 5^th, 2017 at 12:37pm:

bigjohn wrote on Feb 5th, 2017 at 10:53am:   I wonder why BT still dont offer them in  landline call bundles despite saying they were going .to. Because they are BT and they do as they please.  Ever since they decided to get involved in Sport their prices rose and rose... long gone are they days of inexpensive line rental charges (now nearly £20)... because someone has to make a profit somewhere....

There could be a lot of truth in this, I feel.

Also, BT, having acquired one of the largest mobile network operators, now finds that a not insignificant proportion of calls to mobiles, effectively at least, are on-net calls.

http://cached.imagescaler.hbpl.co.uk/resize/scaleWidth/743/offlinehbpl.hbpl.co.uk/news/OKM/5DE13AA6-FADF-24E6-1F88961985FC9F2B.jpg
So then, Mr Petter, with the reduction in mobile termination rates – which you pledged would allow BT to offer calls within all-you-can-eat packages, and now your company's purchase of EE – when are you going to fulfil your promise?

bigjohn wrote on Feb 5^th, 2017 at 10:51am:

allegro wrote on Feb 5th, 2017 at 8:53am: Since the fairly recent drop in mobile termination charges, more landline phone providers are offering calls to mobiles as part of a package. For example Plusnet offer 24/7 calls to 01/02/03 and UK mobiles for (I think) £8 per month. As is common, calls that exceed 60 minutes get charged but you can hang up and redial. I think the PN package still includes calls to 0845 and 0870 though this surely can't go on much longer.   Plusnet Call Bundles also  restrict the amount of mobile calls you can make as.mentioned in the original post.

The number of calls is unlimited. The only restriction is on call length. I think is true of most, if not all, landline packages which offer inclusive calls. This is unlike mobile call packages where the restriction is normally total number of minutes per month with no restriction on individual calls. So if you want to natter for 3 hours on a single call you can do so without problems. Except for for your ear, throat and brain :)

My £8/month PlusNet calls package limits mobile calls to 60 minutes each and total mobile minutes to 2000 per month.

Heinz wrote on Feb 8^th, 2017 at 2:10pm:

My £8/month PlusNet calls package limits mobile calls to 60 minutes each and total mobile minutes to 2000 per month.

It all depends as to how many minutes one is likely to use. If it is under the limit, and especially when under by quite a margin, then the limit is not an issue, other than being mindful if there is exceptionally high usage one month.

I admit I didn't notice the 2000 minute limit. For most users that's a lot more than they are going to use.

There seems to be some confusion, although I am sure that contributors have researched the matter properly.

According to the BT Consumer Price Guide - Effective from 1st February 2017, the free calls to BT Mobiles only applies to Unlimited Anytime (and Home Phone Saver). It seems that the actual feature has a limit of 1000 minutes per month and does not apply to Unlimited Weekends or Unlimited Evenings and Weekends.

I also understand this covers only calls to (branded) "BT Mobile" lines, as "BT Business Mobile" lines are excluded. One must surely assume that calls to mobile lines provided by other members of "BT Group Plc" (e.g. EE) are also excluded.

Some of the information on the BT website appears to have been published before this benefit was actually introduced, and so should be read with caution.

It would obviously help the discussion if we can agree on what we are talking about. Alternative understandings provide a fair, if challenging, basis for discussion; there is no such thing as an "alternative fact", this term is a euphemism for a "lie".

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Feb 9^th, 2017 at 4:27pm:

There seems to be some confusion, although I am sure that contributors have researched the matter properly. According to the BT Consumer Price Guide - Effective from 1st February 2017, the free calls to BT Mobiles only applies to Unlimited Anytime (and Home Phone Saver). It seems that the actual feature has a limit of 1000 minutes per month and does not apply to Unlimited Weekends or Unlimited Evenings and Weekends.

The OP quoted the link Learn about Free Calls to BT Mobiles, which is one of BT's 'Answers'. Unfortunately they are not dated. Further, that page states that the calls will be inclusive where calls to landlines are inclusive and then gives the example that with Unlimited Weekend Calls calls to BT Mobiles will be free at weekends. The page does not give any limit on the number of inclusive minutes. It says that the offer is 'coming soon' and gives the URL to 'register your interest now' as http://www.bt.com/callbtmobile. The only thing is that this URL forwards to the BT homepage. So I would suggest that this page languishing on the server is now only ever going to cause confusion, particularly as there is no date which would might help the reader to conclude that the offer has either been made available or was never made available (that is, the information is in the past and not relevant now).

With respect to the allotted minutes mentioned by the OP, I believe this relates to the Plusnet offer rather than the BT one as it would seem to tally with the Plusnet website:


bigjohn wrote on Feb 4^th, 2017 at 8:59pm:

Plusnet offer calls to all normal  UK Mobile Numbers in their Inclusive Minutes. Fair usage limit of 1,000 minutes  ( Evening and Weekend Bundle ) or 2,000 minutes (Anytime Bundle) applies. Hang up and re-dial before 60 minutes and you won't be charged.

Yes when i am referring to Plusnet Minutes i mean Plusnet Minutes not BT . ;)

Let me make it clearer.

When i called BT to register i wanted to leave within 30 days   i asked what they meant by i would lose  my free calls, the BT Rep  responded  your free calls you had to mobiles. ( The letter mentioning free calls was sent out in response to my initial enquiry about leaving.)

I dug the  link out  Learn about Free Calls to BT Mobiles, after this call.

I have now had a further chance to look at the correspondence from BT and it said.

" You'll lose your bonus unlimited BT Mobile minutes when you stop your phone line
You won't get unlimited calls from your home phone and unlimited minutes on your mobile anymore. You'll stay on the mobile plan you signed up for but will just get the standard monthly allowance of minutes instead. We'll let you know before that happens."

I was not made aware that i had these bonus unlimited minutes  in the first place.

I have just dug around and found this post on the BT Community Pages which explains what they are https://community.bt.com/t5/Bills-Packages/Adding-products-together/td-p/1617574

My move to Plusnet went well and i am saving a decent amount of money, plus  i have got the benefit of inclusive calls to uk mobiles subject to fair use policy.

I moved my mobile to a decent sim only deal with EE which is cheaper and much  better then what BT could offer to keep me. :)

I moved my line and broadband through TopCashBack and i have cashback showing due to me.

I ordered my EE sim only deal from a Special Offers Sales Group who called me back after i declined the normal sales teams offer.