Talk Talk and Virgin Media hit back at BT mobile call cost claims

Talk Talk and Virgin Media have poured scorn on BT's claims it now offers better prices for people calling mobile phones from their landlines.

BT announced yesterday it was making "significant" cuts to the cost of calling a mobile on all major networks from a BT landline from 28 May.

John Petter, managing director, Consumer, at BT said the company was also "naming and shaming Sky, Talktalk and Virgin Media", which he said charged "far" more for calling mobiles from their landlines.

Talk Talk sent out a comment in which it said, "BT's mobile rates changes leave us underwhelmed". The internet service provider (ISP) went on to say that it was "surprised" to hear BT was calling on its competitors to match its prices for landline calls to mobiles.

"We more than match them – in fact, we've been offering much cheaper rates for some time and are still loads cheaper than BT, even after its latest price changes," says Talktalk.

Virgin Media also responded to BT's challenge by saying BT had "neglected to mention" that the company already offered offer free landline calls from Virgin Media home phones to Virgin Mobiles.

Virgin's free deal to Virgin mobiles doesn't take into account that BT offers the cuts for its customers to all four major operators. Virgin told us, "On face value it may appear that we are more expensive, but our proposition is to maintain exceptional value for our customers."