News 

The UK telco-giant has now begun a special offer for calls via its Communicator application, which will run until 31 December. International calls to a selected group of countries are now charged at the rate of 0.5p per minute, which - claims BT - undercuts the likes of Skype by a half.

'We are not going to sit back while competitors lure our customers with cheap Internet calls. We will fight for every customer by offering our own attractive prices,' vowed Gavin Patterson, BT group managing director.

With an undisguised side-swipe at Ofcom regulators, he also declared: 'Unlike traditional telephony, where we are heavily regulated, for Internet telephony we can compete on an equal basis and offer customers the same advantages of low cost calls over the Internet, but from a global, trusted brand.'

The 0.5p per minute rate will apply to calls to 30 countries, including Argentina, Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Russia, Taiwan and the United States. Not forgetting the Vatican, too.

After 31 December, calls will revert to a per-nation basis - ranging from 1.5p for USA and Canada to 11p per minute to the Indian subcontinent - which is when Skype will be undercutting BT once more.

Other offers in the BT initiative include free Communicator calls for under an hour to Australia and the ability to make Communicator calls from BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots without paying any access subscription or per-minute charges.

All pricing information, including the standard fees that will be charged after 31 December can be found online at www.bt.com/btcommunicator/international/. You can compare and contrast the Skype prices here.