COMMUNICATIONS giant BT has been accused of hiding the real cost of using the phone behind baffling blurb as new research suggested customers can pay anything between £83 and £287 for the same set of calls.

The Plain English Campaign said it launched a study into BT's pricing structures after fielding a barrage of calls from confused phone users.

It said customers complained that a BT letter outlining its different packages was so complicated they could not make sense of it.

The letter included an amazing 40 footnotes breaking down the details of its various deals, which included BT Together, Talk Together and Surf Together.

Researchers later discovered that an average household could pay any of 36 different sets of totals for the same calls by signing up to one or more of ten packages.

They claimed that callers using a mixture of BT's Friends and Family and Surf Together packages would pay the smallest amount, £83.06, for a quarterly set of calls including one hour chatting to a friend living nearby each week and half-hour weekend calls to Australia.

Customers paying BT's standard rates and line rental, meanwhile, would pay £287.27 for the same calls, claimed researchers.

The Plain English Campaign said BT customers were contacting them to find out exactly what they were paying for, and more importantly, what BT deal was best for them.

A spokesman for the Plain English Campaign said: ''People were coming to us asking how on earth they were meant to work out which of BT's various deals was best for them.

''We tried to work out why the footnotes were so complicated and realised it was because the range of BT packages was so tortuously confusing.

''I've filled in a self-assessment tax form but I think this calculation may have been even more mind numbing.

''Maybe some people are getting the best deal, but it takes an entire afternoon's calculations just to get a vague idea of which package really works out cheapest.

"It just seems impossible for customers to have any real confidence that you're not paying too much.''

BT said it could not check the Campaign's figures as it had not disclosed exactly what methodology it has used in its research.

The company said it had not found customers voicing concerns and it aimed to keep its pricing make-up as simple as possible.

A spokeswoman for BT said: ''They are making it sound far more complicated than it really is.

''The main letter which accompanied the footnotes they refer to was very clear and we did not find that our customers had a problem.

''Our billing may not be perfect but we constantly review our pricing structures to ensure they are as simple as possible.'