Changes to BT 1280

Jennifer

I can confirm that at present 1899 and 18185 still work on my Sky Talk enabled line. Only 1280 has been affected as previously posted.

The loss of free BT Call Minder and Caller Display would affect my assessment of the Sky Talk "deal". (These services are now chargeable to me due to my inability to route calls through BT and they cost £6.25/Quarter).

Is the latest BT offer of a contracted 12 months on unlimited evening and weekend calls a good one? I see it as a "no further cost" option which includes 1571 and caller display.
J

Jennifer

I changed to BT's evening and weekend plan today. They acknowleged that it would take a few days to transfer from the Sky Talk CPS.

BUT - they informed me that 1280 would be live again immediately i.e., TODAY.

So someone has control over 1280 - I am still with Sky but 1280 works now but it did not this morning.

J

deanos

I moved to that plan, its been great, the only downer is that if you pay your bill monthly you cant set a date on direct debit, ive had to go onto a payment plan and get billed every 3 months so i could choose the date the payment leaves.

I also got a free printer which i sold for £30 so that has offset some of the cost

Jennifer

No free printer offered to me but I am already on Bt line rental and the DD will remain the same as at present.
J

System

Many thanks, Jennifer, for keeping us informed. So I was mistaken in calling it BT Wholesale's 'whim' that 1280 doesn't work when you have CPS of Sky, implemented by WCLI. Your experience appears to show that BT Retail instructs BT Wholesale to allow 1280, or not.

System

I have replied to Ofcom as follows:

Thank you for updating me.

I think BT is misleading you.

You write:
"It has become apparent that BT's override code of 1280 is not available to users of Sky's new WCLI service."

I do not believe that it has 'become apparent' (although I accept that BT Wholesale may not initially have made it clear to Sky). I believe that BT Retail instructs BT Wholesale to disable 1280 (but not other IACs). Certainly, when a Skytalk customer asks BT Retail to remove the CPS (implemented via WCLI) of Sky, removing the CPS of Sky requires the usual 10 (I think) working days notice, but BT Retail instructs BT Wholesale to remove the block on 1280 at once.

By this means BT Retail is, it seems to me, evading what I thought was its duty to facilitate CPS, but make it over-ridable. This is clearly explained in Oftel's consumer guide to CPS, which is still available on Ofcom's website.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/Oftel/ind_groups/op_policy/cpscgm/docs/cpsconguidev3.htm
"Do I have to make every call using my CPS provider?
No, you will be able to use any other provider with whom you have arranged services (including BT) by dialling extra digits before the phone number you want to call. (This is called an 'over-ride' or 'indirect access' code.) For example, you may want to use a CPS provider for most international calls but use another provider just for calls to a particular country."
(I am aware that, these days, many providers do not allow, or threaten not to allow, the use of IACs. I think Ofcom is also at fault for letting them get away with that, but at present I am pursuing only the 1280 issue.)
Please could you let me know whether I correctly understand what is going on with 1280 and WCLI, and, if I do, what Ofcom proposes to do to stop it.

Jennifer

Jennifer wrote: »

BUT - they informed me that 1280 would be live again immediately i.e., TODAY.

So someone has control over 1280 - I am still with Sky but 1280 works now but it did not this morning.

J

Or so I thought - BT phoned me today to confirm my calls switch from Sky to BT would take place on 20th Nov. I asked them to confirm that 1280 was now available until that date and was told clearly "No - 1280 will still not work with Sky CPS in place. So I cannot now confirm whether I can or cannot use 1280.

Conflicting information from BT.

This is now not a concern for me as I will be back with BT on 20th and Sky can whistle.

However another call to BT today and I was given "1280 may or may not work". I give in!!
J

Heinz

YoungNick wrote: »

I have replied to Ofcom

You're doing a grand job YoungNick.

I'm just getting 'jobsworth' replies now from what I thought was a good contact at BT:

We do understand your concerns, but how calls' providers, e.g. Sky, provide calls to their end customers is not something that BT Retail can either comment on or influence. Regulation only requires that Indirect Access is available over BT's WLR lines, which is possible/available for Indirect Access codes other than 1280. If customers wish to make calls via BT Retail they should either move their calls back to BT Retail or move to another telephone company who supports the use of 1280 for selected calls.

I think I'm just going to recommend people ditch Sky Talk now (unless the international calls options make it overwhelmingly worthwhile) because, despite their unhelpfulness, BT's Unlimited Anytime Plan, at £4.95/month, is a better deal than Sky's £5/month Sky Talk Unlimited and their free Unlimited Evening and Weekend Plan is a better deal than Sky's 'free' Sky Talk Freetime

I'll start a thread asking those using CPS calls providers to reply if their provider already ignores or does start to ignore the use of the 1280 prefix so we can keep a list.

The only confirmed one at the moment is Sky although I do remember someone mentioned Talk Talk may now be doing the same.

Chrysalis

YoungNick wrote: »

Mr Ingham of Ofcom telecoms competition informs me that:
It appears, therefore, that
(a) Ofcom is not intending to do anything (what a surprise!)

Unfortenatly ofcom's stance on nearly everything is as long as the customer is been told whats happening rules can be broken.

I wasnt expecting anything from ofcom so I simply moved from sky talk to primus, and I will move again if primus pull the same stunt.

To the other poster who asked about sky broadband, if you move of sky talk your broadband will be fine as the unbundling is done seperatly and should work no matter who handles your calls.

dzug1

Heinz wrote: »

The only confirmed one at the moment is Sky although I do remember someone mentioned Talk Talk may now be doing the same.

Talktalk are definitely charging for 1280 calls (as of early August). They had not (by the end of September) informed their customers (or at least not me)

It took something like 6 weeks to switch back to BT.