War Child." Calling Brian Eno and Tony Crean on to the stage, the singer handed over the award and the pounds 25,000 prize money to the two men who had raised more than pounds 2m for the Bosnian charity War Child with the compilation album recorded in 24 hours, Help.It was the end of Oasis's hopes of winning both a Brit Award and the Mercury Music Prize this year. We'd like to inaugurate a new music award right here tonight. Last night Pulp's album Different Class was named best album in the 1996 Mercury Music Prize. But even as the audience at the Grosvenor House Hotel, west London, erupted in applause, Jarvis Cocker, the leader singer of Pulp, climbed on to the stage and announced: "In actual fact we've had our award already 'cos people bought a lot of copies of our album. They won - but they didn't walk off with the spoils.

A five-minute weekend call to the US costs pounds 1.02 on Mercury, against pounds 1.31 for BT. Including all the possible discounts from both companies, Mercury comes out 1p cheaper.The biggest threat to established operators comes from smaller "resale" companies which buy line capacity wholesale and sell it at a discount.Swiftcall, based in Dublin, charges 10p a minute for off-peak calls to the US and 20p for peak-time calls, undercutting BT by around a half. Most worryingly for BT, research suggests that resale companies such as Swiftcall can still make attractive profits.. This year BT could spend as much as pounds 180m on advertising to get its message across.But cable operators still claim to be substantially cheaper than BT for those with average bills.

Some offer free local calls if the number dialled is also with the cable company.The general rule is that the higher the cost of the call, the bigger the competition and the greater the choice for consumers.In the international market Mercury claims it is still cheaper than BT, despite the latest price cuts. "The drop in international call charges is not keeping pace with the fall in this underlying cost."Business comment, page 19Rivals have all kinds of dealSo many phone companies are now competing with BT that the biggest problem for those trying to compare prices is finding the time to gather all the information.BT customers can join a number of discount schemes. Under the Friends and Family offer, promoted in television advertisements featuring Bob Hoskins, call charges to five nominated numbers are reduced by 10 per cent.Another scheme, PremierLine, targeted at higher-spending households, knocks 15 per cent off all calls for an annual charge of pounds 24 Small business can also join a number of discount schemes. A spokesman said a large proportion of the cost of an overseas call went to the foreign telephone company involved.Experts said that despite all the recent price cuts, BT still stood to increase its profits. "The price paid by the consumer is still substantially higher than the cost to the phone company of transmitting the call," Paul Lee, from the consultancy firm, Ovum, said. A bewildering array of rival companies aims to undercut BT in the congested transatlantic market.

Fibre-optic cables, which in theory can carry an almost limitless number of calls, have reduced the cost massively over the past 10 years.BT, which is on course to make profits of more than pounds 3bn this year, says that it still faces huge costs in the international phone business. People who mainly make local calls have seen the least benefit. From next year Oftel will attempt to redress the balance with a tougher price cap, focused more directly on lower-spending households.The National Consumer Council said BT had "singularly failed" to offer flexible payment packages and had failed to cut the cost of local calls, which were most important for the vast majority of customers.Behind the current round of reductions lies increasingly cut-throat competition in international calls, driven by new technology. Line- rental charges have been going up.The main criticism of the current price cap has been that BT, which decides where to make the cuts, has been targeting reductions on the customers who spend most. "They're just complying with their price cap," a spokesman said "They've got to do it. It's not out of the goodness of their own heart."BT has to cut a basket of charges in line with a five-year price cap set by Oftel. The reductions must total pounds 417m over the next 12 months.