BT Basic (for calls) and Broadband

Funkyfreddy

Hi All,

Appreciate there haas been some mention in the past but just wonder if anybody has recent experience of getting Broadband on a BT basic line/calling plan.

The previous "Low User Scheme" was always deemed an incompatable product and you could not get ADSL on such a line until it was changed to a standard line rental.

The current BT Basic scheme now allows Broadband (Page 6 here) but it isn't clear if it has to be a BT Broadband package or can it be from any other ADSL provider.

BT basic costs the user 13.50 per qtr (4.50 per month) so adding the least expensive basic BT Broadband package of 15.99/m means a charge of 61.47/qtr but you could get a less expensive BB package from elsewhere if it can be used with BT Basic.

Any help appreciated and many thanks in advance.

FF

A.Penny.Saved

Yes you can use BT Basic with any other broadband supplier including LLU ones. I recently moved to BT Basic and I am a Be broadband value customer.

But a word of caution, I have found BT Basic in the 3+ months I have been on it to be extremely restrictive call wise, which I haven't enjoyed one bit. Before I joined I thought that I would continue to use 1899 etc for my calls like I had done previously, only to find ALL access to the low cost call providers to be blocked.

I have had an idea about VOIP which I need to investigate to see if it is possible to lift the extortionate cost on calls that BT Basic charges.

Overall BT Basic has saved me money but at a cost which I don't know how much longer I can bear.

BT Basic, the package for people with no friends, or soon to have no friends, is something I read on this forum and perfectly describes it IMO.

kwikbreaks

Off main topic....

You can't use 1899 on VM cable either and the 0808 access number charges 1p a minute so when I moved to VM I bought an Analogue Telephone Adaptor (ATA) and moved over to using VOIP for all outgoing calls.

I got my ATA on eBay and it seems the seller only had the one so you'll need to source one yourself if you want to go that way yourself. I buy credit from VOIPCheap which gives 90 days free landline calls and the credit can be used on 0870 etc. or normal calls at 1p a minute when the free period runs out. You get £10 credit for ~ £12.70 (£10 + 20% German VAT + 70p service charge). Unless you hammer the chargeable calls that £12.70 will easily last you the quarter.

A.Penny.Saved

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Off main topic....

It will help him though because BT Basic isn't really for making calls, not if you want your bill to remain low and not reach regular phone line costs. It's a sort of replacement for the light users scheme.

You can't use 1899 on VM cable either and the 0808 access number charges 1p a minute so when I moved to VM I bought an Analogue Telephone Adaptor (ATA) and moved over to using VOIP for all outgoing calls.

I got my ATA on eBay and it seems the seller only had the one so you'll need to source one yourself if you want to go that way yourself. I buy credit from VOIPCheap which gives 90 days free landline calls and the credit can be used on 0870 etc. or normal calls at 1p a minute when the free period runs out. You get £10 credit for ~ £12.70 (£10 + 20% German VAT + 70p service charge). Unless you hammer the chargeable calls that £12.70 will easily last you the quarter.

£12.70 is considerably higher than I have ever paid for calls by a massive margin. With the low cost calls via 1899 etc my bills only ever came to less than £2 to £3 a quarter.

I couldn't get VOIPCheap to register. It keeps saying network error even if I stop everything that could be affecting it such as firewall/AV.

But if I enter an already used username, it says it's used and recommends others so it must be contacting the server.

I have a router which has VOIP capabilities which I have never used. I will have to connect it again as I am not currently using the router and will try it, if I can get an account sorted out.

kwikbreaks

This is the VOIPCheap I use - http://www.voipcheap.co.uk/en/index.html it is one site of many run by a company called Betamax. This site lists lots of their brands and prices - http://backsla.sh/betamax

On 1899 I was spending around £2-3 a month so the pricing for me is OK. If you only spend about £1 a month that's 20 calls and you'd get 5mins each at the 1p per minute VOIPCheap charge. The £10 credit would buy 10 months of calls plus the 3 months free so your costs would work out about the same barring any 0870 or 0845 calls. I'm assuming a call to a mobile would induce a heart attack

A.Penny.Saved

kwikbreaks wrote: »

This is the VOIPCheap I use -

Link

it is one site of many run by a company called Betamax. This site lists lots of their brands and prices -

Link

That's the one I found and got the program from. The latest software won't run successfully on two of my systems. It won't register and tends to throw errors and crash frequently so I cannot say I'm impressed with the software.

The site looks in the same style of the cheap calls sites so I would guess they are run by the same company. Betamax might be behind all of it. Betamax wasn't that a superior video cassette format that didn't succeed?

On 1899 I was spending around £2-3 a month so the pricing for me is OK. If you only spend about £1 a month that's 20 calls and you'd get 5mins each at the 1p per minute VOIPCheap charge. The £10 credit would buy 10 months of calls plus the 3 months free so your costs would work out about the same barring any 0870 or 0845 calls.

I don't make too many calls but the ones I do tend to be fairly long. 10 mins would be a short call and when a short call costs over £1 you can understand why I have disliked BT Basic so much after paying only 5p for longer calls previously. VOIP might be the answer but so far it ain't happening.

I'm assuming a call to a mobile would induce a heart attack

I don't use or encourage mobiles for a very good reason but that is another story. The mobile rates on 18185 are fairly low. If you thought that the cost of a mobile call would give me a heart attack, that's nothing compared with BT Basic's call rates to regular numbers.

OldGreyFox

Think callback in these cirumstance.

The callback service provided by www.webcalldirect.com part of the 18185/1899/18866 family is worth a look at.

Funkyfreddy

HI,

Thanks to all for the replies/input

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

Yes you can use BT Basic with any other broadband supplier including LLU ones. I recently moved to BT Basic and I am a Be broadband value customer.

Thanks for the confirmation - good to know.

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

But a word of caution, I have found BT Basic in the 3+ months I have been on it to be extremely restrictive call wise, which I haven't enjoyed one bit. Before I joined I thought that I would continue to use 1899 etc for my calls like I had done previously, only to find ALL access to the low cost call providers to be blocked.

Thanks - the line was formally a Low User Tariff and was just "converted" to BT Basic by BT when they stopped the former. Access to other carriers wasn't available on the Low User Tariff either so no change there although to be fair that isn't really an issue. There are occasions when the call costs exceed the allowance but over several billing periods the saving is still there and access to call minutes are available elsewhere !

Thanks again
FF

kwikbreaks

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

That's the one I found and got the program from. The latest software won't run successfully on two of my systems. It won't register and tends to throw errors and crash frequently so I cannot say I'm impressed with the software.

Ah - I wouldn't know if the software works or not as I've never used it - as I said I use an ATA along with my DECT phones rather than using a PC to make the calls. In fact I have to as my wife is a real technophobe and would through a wobbler if she couldn't just pick up a normal phone and dial when she liked.

If you make long calls then the only ways I'm aware of where you can get 0p per minute are when you can use the CPS number directly or from the free days you get when you buy VOIP credit.

Unless somebody comes up with some other option I reckon you'll just have to pay more one way or another.

A.Penny.Saved

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Off main topic....

You can't use 1899 on VM cable either and the 0808 access number charges 1p a minute so when I moved to VM I bought an Analogue Telephone Adaptor (ATA) and moved over to using VOIP for all outgoing calls.

I got my ATA on eBay and it seems the seller only had the one so you'll need to source one yourself if you want to go that way yourself. I buy credit from VOIPCheap which gives 90 days free landline calls and the credit can be used on 0870 etc. or normal calls at 1p a minute when the free period runs out. You get £10 credit for ~ £12.70 (£10 + 20% German VAT + 70p service charge). Unless you hammer the chargeable calls that £12.70 will easily last you the quarter.

This is all a bit off topic for this thread but I think it might help anyone else who searches for threads on this subject.

I have finally managed to sign up after many attempts which were rejected. Something seems wrong with the sign up procedure.

With regard to buying the credit and the figures you quoted, the website only seems to allow a person to buy credit if a mobile phone is used to verify the user by text message. I don't and won't use mobile phones and I will not encourage their use. So like other sites such as google gmail, that means that the site cannot be used which is prejudicial to none mobile users.

I only wanted to compare the prices with the resellers because the resellers seem to sell credits for quite a bit more than the credit value and I wondered why. The prices even vary between re-sellers so I wanted to see what price the main site sells them for. Do you know which re-seller offers the cheapest prices and is trustworthy with no service issues or incorrect charging?

I used the trial using my phone connected to my 716 router and got two calls out of it before being cut off and redials cut off very quickly so the trial is very limited.

It's a pity the router is a bit crap for the dsl connection giving much lower connection speeds compared to my other two routers, otherwise it would work quite well.

kwikbreaks

Sorry but I didn't investigate that fully as I was satisfied enough with the price I was charged and didn't realise that resellers had different pricing.

I don't recall the mobile phone business but as I have one it wouldn't be a big deal for me.