Mercury Communications Ltd yesterday responded to British Telecommunications Plc’s 10 pence for three minutes anywhere in the UK weekend tariff by cutting some of its own prices for residential customers, offering savings of up to 5% in some cases. The 5% savings come from a plan called YourCall, in which residential customers nominate five numbers in the off-peak and weekend period, one of which can be international, which qualify for the special rates. There will be no registration fee for the YourCall service and if any of the five people that are nominated also go on to sign up for the Mercury service, the original customer receives an extra bonus. Mercury charges by the minute, so it has responded to BT’s weekend rate with a 2.5 pence per minute rate for any UK call at weekends – a 25% saving over British Telecom. It is also running a December and January promotion that gives a further 5% saving on national and international calls made between midnight Friday and midnight Sunday every weekend, and also on all three national holidays Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.