Cheapest way to call mobiles from sky talk??

oxters

Hello

I have a sky talk unlimited package ie free calls to 01/02/03 numbers.
I use say no to 0870 for alternative numbers for the 08's as sky charge for these but is there any way of getting cheaper calls to mobiles - sky say they are 25% cheaper than BT but my wife says BT have just halved the cost of calls to mobiles so maybe sky are expensive now for mobiles.
Any advice welcome

Heinz

If you're a CPS customer, www.18185.co.uk will be cheapest (5p connection + 6p/minute during the week and, via their gateway numbers, 4p connection + 4p/minute at weekends.

OTOH, if you've handed over your line rental to Sky too, you'd have to use their gateway numbers during the week as well - and that'd mean 10p/minute call charges (cheaper alternatives via 6p/minute 0871 gateway providers on the MSE UK CallChecker (if Sky charges the same as BT for 0871 calls).

oxters

Heinz wrote: »

If you're a CPS customer, www.18185.co.uk will be cheapest (5p connection + 6p/minute during the week and, via their gateway numbers, 4p connection + 4p/minute at weekends.

OTOH, if you've handed over your line rental to Sky too, you'd have to use their gateway numbers during the week as well - and that'd mean 10p/minute call charges (cheaper alternatives via 0844 gateway providers on the MSE UK CallChecker (if Sky charges the same as BT for 0844 calls).

No I've stayed with BT for line rental only. Can I hop back there and make calls while on the sky talk thingie? Can you explain how to do that please? Will sky not realise I'm doing that? I thought sky could prevent me doing that these days and just charge me their rates anyway?

Heinz

oxters wrote: »

No I've stayed with BT for line rental only. Can I hop back there and make calls while on the sky talk thingie? Can you explain how to do that please? Will sky not realise I'm doing that? I thought sky could prevent me doing that these days and just charge me their rates anyway?

This, IMHO, is the hottest subject in voice telephony in the UK at the moment and was the No.1 item I asked Martin to raise with Ofcom when he met them last month. Martin has promised to blog on the meeting when Ofcom 'get back to him' on a few things - but that appears to be taking a very long time.

In summary, in what I regard as an outrageous bending of the rules, BT Wholesale appears to have come up with a way of selling Sky a calls package which, bizarrely, allows Sky to bar those like you (who leave their line rental with BT Retail but opt to use Sky as their CPS calls provider) from using the 1280 prefix to 'hop back onto BT' to make calls when they want. That has resulted in some being charged for Caller Display and/or basic 1571 because Sky is preventing their customers from making the necessary number of 'qualifying' calls to get those services free.

Anyway, as far as I am aware (but nothing would surprise me now) this will not allow Sky to prevent those such as you from using other prefixes (1899, 18185 etc.) and you can, therefore, just use 18185 (and its gateway numbers) for your calls to UK mobiles as I suggested in my earlier post. You do, of course, need to open an account with them online first.

oxters

Heinz wrote: »

This, IMHO, is the hottest subject in voice telephony in the UK at the moment and was the No.1 item I asked Martin to raise with Ofcom when he met them last month. Martin has promised to blog on the meeting when Ofcom 'get back to him' on a few things - but that appears to be taking a very long time.

In summary, in what I regard as an outrageous bending of the rules, BT Wholesale appears to have come up with a way of selling Sky a calls package which allows Sky to bar those like you (who leave their line rental with BT Retail but opt to use Sky as their CPS calls provider) from using the 1280 prefix to 'hop back onto BT' to make calls when they want. That has resulted in some being charged for Caller Display and/or basic 1571 because Sky is preventing their customers from making the necessary number of 'qualifying' calls to get those services free.

Anyway, as far as I am aware (but nothing would surprise me now) this will not allow Sky to prevent those such as you from using other prefixes (1899, 18185 etc.) and you can, therefore, just use 18185 (and its gateway numbers) for your calls to UK mobiles as I suggested in my earlier post.

Wow - that's a very detailed reply - thank you very much. afaik only 01/02/03 numbers are free so I think I'd have to pay sky if I dial 18 etc wouldn't I? A believe there's also a charge for dialling 0800 which if true seems a bit of a con? Dunno if you/anyone can confirm the above charges.

Heinz

oxters wrote: »

Wow - that's a very detailed reply - thank you very much. afaik only 01/02/03 numbers are free so I think I'd have to pay sky if I dial 18 etc wouldn't I? A believe there's also a charge for dialling 0800 which if true seems a bit of a con? Dunno if you/anyone can confirm the above charges.

No.

If you retain your BT line and use the 18185 prefix, you will bypass your default calls carrier (Sky) and your line provider (BT) and won't have to pay either for that call.

I wrote a plain-language summary of what CPS is a while back - it may help if you have a quick read - HERE. It's been overtaken by events to a certain extent (the fact that Sky can now ignore its customer's use of the 1280 prefix) but, apart from that, it explains the concept.

oxters

Many thanks Heinz. That should fix me up. What a treat to talk to someone who knows what they are speaking about. You deserve a job with ofcom?