The dream of every talkative teenager - and the answer to their parents' nightmare - could soon become reality thanks to US-style "free" local evening and weekend phone calls to be offered by BT.
A confidential BT briefing document obtained by the Guardian discloses that the company is to launch a radical off-peak free calls package on December 1, after a nationwide advertising campaign starting next month.
The package, called BT Talk Together, will offer an unlimited number of local evening and weekend calls for residential subscribers for £14.99 a month, including line rental and VAT - £5 more than the current standard monthly line rental.
But there is still a catch in the small print for the parents of chatty children - 1p a minute will be charged after the first hour of any single "free" call.
The offer will be part of a wider shake-up by the telecommunications giant, which has been under pressure from increased competition from mobile phones and cable operators.
BT said yesterday it would not comment on the new package in advance of an official announcement. "We have no specific plans that we are able to talk about right now," said David Orr, a spokesman for the company.
The company will also offer a similar package for unlimited off-peak internet access. The combined voice and internet package will cost £17.99 a month.
At the same time the company also plans to hike its standard residential line rental by more than £2 a quarter. BT defends the increase by saying it needs to make "a better return on its line rental product".
Oftel, the telecommunications watchdog, is said to have been told of the plans by BT. "Oftel have been informed of the price changes and there are now no objections to the changes," the briefing document states.
BT says the timing and scope of the unlimited calls package is the result of demand from its residential customers.
The off-peak call scheme comes after heavy criticism of BT by its rivals that the corporation has "dragged its feet" over allowing its competitors access to local exchanges and hampered internet service providers from offering unmetered access for individuals along the lines of similar services in the US.
The company has also seen its share price plummet in recent months on the back of investors' worries about the size of BT's corporate debt - which is more than £20bn.
City analysts expect BT's new offer to spark a price war among the leading operators. And it comes as BT has been under severe pressure from institutional investors to breathe life back into its faltering share price - which has fallen from a peak of £15.13 at the beginning of this year to less than £7 each this month.
In its most recent company results, BT reported a 27% dive in pre-tax profits for the first three months of this year, down from £772m to £561m. Earlier this month, BT bowed to shareholder pressure for a change in its management by parting company with its senior finance director.
In April, BT announced it had restructured the company into four main divisions, and is expected to sell off some to raise extra cash to help meet its debt mountain.
But yesterday BT received some good news. The company won a £250m refund on its local business rates bills in England and Wales. The rebate covers valuations based on BT's network assets, including phone boxes and telephone poles.
