ISP Sky Broadband UK Strips International Calls from Sky Talk Anytime

New customers looking to add the Sky Talk Anytime calls option to their broadband and phone service will, effective from Tuesday next week, no longer be able to benefit from unlimited calls to geographic landlines in 22 international destinations. But the price stays the same.

At present the Sky Talk Anytime service costs an extra £5 a month (on top of Sky Line Rental at £14.50 a month) and, aside from the international calls, includes unlimited calls to UK landlines any time of the day (including calls to 0870 numbers). But recently a notice on Sky’s website has appeared to warn that the inclusive international calls would not be available after 13th August 2013.

After a little digging we discovered that Sky intended to launch a new Sky Talk Anytime International package to complement its slimmed down Sky Talk Anytime service. The operator claims that this move is intended to meet the demands of two different customer types (i.e. those that need to call abroad a lot and those who don’t).

This makes perfect sense but in reality it would appear to disguise a price hike since Sky will be removing the significant international calls element from Sky Talk Anytime; yet the price will not be reduced. But it’s not quite that simple because there are some new extras.

The good news is that existing customers will not be affected (yet.. but you never know what might happen in the future), calls to 0845 will now also be included and the new package will offer calls to 50 international destinations instead of 22 but it won’t come cheap.

Sky Talk Anytime (New)
* Unlimited UK Landline Calls
* Unlimited 0845/0870 Calls
* Standard rates apply to mobile / international calls

Price: £5 a month

Sky Talk Anytime International (New)
* Unlimited UK Landline Calls
* Unlimited 0845/0870 Calls
* Standard rates apply to mobile / international calls
* International calls to 50 inclusive destinations

Price: £10 a month

The addition of free 0845 calls is a positive development but as ever there will be winners and losers to Sky’s change, although at least it only impacts new customers.

The 50 Countries:
Austria
Australia
Bangladesh
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada (inc. mobiles)
Canary Islands
China
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Gibraltar
Greece
Hong Kong (inc. mobiles)
Hungary
India
Irish Republic
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Madeira
Malaysia
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Pakistan
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russian Federation
Singapore
Slovak Republic
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Thailand
Turkey
USA (inc. mobiles)