A NEW concept in how to pay your home telephone bill has been piloted locally and is about to be launched nationwide.

Instead of waiting for the bill to arrive on the doormat, Televoice UK Ltd's customers will be able to pre-pay for landline based-calls on the same basis as the mobile phone Pay as You Go system.

Customers will be able to pre-pay for calls in three ways by credit or debit card, vouchers in nominations of £10, £20 or £30 or by sending a cheque or postal order in a pre-paid envelope.

"I had the idea about five years ago, but the technology only became available about two-and-a-half years ago," said Alex Simmons, one of five directors of the company in Corporation Street, High Wycombe.

Alex has spent the last two years fine tuning the system much of it with domestic sales director Ken Warner. They researched the market, approached equipment suppliers and built up the infrastructure before piloting the product in the High Wycombe area on July 10.

The other three directors, from High Wycombe and Beaconsfield, are silent partners in the business.

"Alex and I worked for nothing for a long time and used our money and City investment to set up the company," said Ken.

The handset supplied by Televoice (cost £39.95 to include £10 worth of free calls) has special state-of-the-art technology to control the billing. That allows the user to check how much credit is left and top up the handset using a credit or debit card 24-hours a day or by loading a voucher.

The telephone line provider and number remains the same so the line rental will still need to be paid to BT or the cable provider.

Alex claims that Televoice's national rate calls are at least 25 per cent cheaper than other providers and its international calls are at least 50 per cent cheaper.

This is possible, he said, because Televoice buys bulk minutes through various carriers which are paid for in advance.

Televoice outsources its call centre to Callflow, run by David Amor, which takes care of postal response handling, payment processes and banking, warehousing and despatch.

"They are specialists and this leaves us the time to concentrate on expanding our services. We are now looking at cordless and integrated systems to include digital phones," said Alex.

Drina Line, of Brandon Road, High Wycombe, bought her Televoice handset two months ago.

"I am really pleased with the service. You are able to keep a check on a day-to-day basis of your spending. It works out cheaper."

Contact Televoice UK on (08707) 507060 or e-mail: kenwarner@callnetuk.com