Sky phone service & cheap rate operators

GoofyGAT

Hi all,

I've a friend who pays her rental to BT & makes her calls through the Sky Talk phone service (I didn't even know it existed).

Does anyone know, for sure, if she can route some/all of her intl calls via the cheap rate operators - Telestunt, BestMinutes, etc? Or, does Sky 'block' these numbers like some of the other non-BT phone providers do? Most of these cheap rate operators use 0844 access numbers.

Their Terms & Conditions info is not very clear about this - "Sky Talk UK rates and savings do not apply to calls to numbers to the Channel Islands, non-geographic and premium rate numbers, e.g. those starting 08, 09 or 118." Their Tariff Guide (pdf format) is no help either. So how much do these cost then?

G

Heinz

Sky's telephone 'service' does not offer much saving over BT.

Your friend would be better off just going back to BT Together Option 1 and making her calls to UK 01/02 numbers via 1899 (3p each, no duration limit).

Better still, read Martin's recommendations on the subject.

GoofyGAT

Thanks Heinz.

I'm not sure she'd want to do that. They (her family) are on Sky for a reason, & I don't think they'd want to return to BT - or, join 1899 for that matter (though I've done both for several months now).

They just want to be able to make cheaper intl calls (mostly to S Africa I gather). The Sky rates to SA range from 9-22p/min (BT is 42-52p/min!!). The cheaper rate providers range from just 1-5p/min & over.

Does anyone else know if Sky allow 0844 numbers & their price(s)? G

Heinz

GoofyGAT wrote:

They just want to be able to make cheaper intl calls (mostly to S Africa I gather). The Sky rates to SA range from 9-22p/min (BT is 42-52p/min!!).

Sky appear to charge between 40p and 50p!

OK, let's assume they won't be swayed (they're wrong but so be it) and will stay CPS'd to Sky.

Tell them to use the MSE Callchecker to find the cheapest dial-through provider and then prefix whichever 0844 number they intend to use for their calls to RSA (or wherever) with 1280 (to hop back onto BT and be guaranteed to make the calls at the advertised rate).

GoofyGAT

You're right about Sky's RSA rates - I'd looked in the same tariff guide (obviously didn't look properly :rolleyes:).

Ah! I thought about the 1280 bypass (or similar), but didn't think it was possible with Sky. Onetel, who I was with some time ago, clearly state this (last one) in their FAQs, but couldn't find this info on the Sky website.

Thanks again, will let you know how it all works out in a few days. G

Heinz

GoofyGAT wrote:

Ah! I thought about the 1280 bypass (or similar), but didn't think it was possible with Sky. Onetel, who I was with some time ago, clearly state this (last one) in their FAQs, but couldn't find this info on the Sky website.

That's probably because it's not in their interests to do so!

Interestingly, Sky quote BT's non-discounted rates for 0845 and 0870 calls and don't give prices for 0844 or 0871 numbers - so I strongly recommend use of the 1280 prefix for calling any 084/087 numbers.

GoofyGAT

Though I'm not a Sky customer, I called & confirmed that the 1280 prefix is required to bypass their system (not surprisingly, my friend & her family didn't know this was possible).

Tomorrow, I shall give her the RSA cheap rate list, provide her details of 1899/call18185/MSE callchecker & let them decide for themselves. G

BexTech

The Sky service is only a CPS service, and not a WLR, so the phone line and bill is still with BT, it's just the calls that are automatically routed to Sky dial.

As it is a CPS service, you can therefore dial 1280 to get back onto the BT service, or dial 1899 or 18185 etc.

OneTel, TalkTalk, Just Dial, Primus have and/or still do offer CPS, so the same applied to them, the only time you will hit problems is when you do the silly thing and let them take over line rental, then you will find you can't use 1289 (as you are no longer a BT customer) nor can you access 1899 and 18185 etc.