Carphone offers free calls in BT battle

CARPHONE Warehouse turned up the heat in the telephone price war today. The group, the fastest growing rival to BT, said customers of its TalkTalk service will be able to call each other for nothing from Britain to their second homes in Spain, France or Switzerland.

It said that the calls would be free regardless of the time of day or distance.

Carphone's rates for all other calls are cheaper than BT's, even after the latter's price cuts yesterday, it added.

Chief executive Charles Dunstone said: 'We are about to hit the 400,000 customer mark and in February accounted for one in three of customers who left BT. Free calls will encourage even more customers to join us.'