From Onetel Bundle to Talk Talk Bundle - advice

barneybeagle

We've been with Onetel for about two years now and apart from a horrendous start with them things settled out and we've had no problem with their Leisure Talk, Line Rental and Broadband deal. Our average bill is around £45.00 so we want to get that down.

As Carphone warehouse now own both Onetel and Talk Talk I plan to move across to Talk Talk shortly for the all in one £19.99 deal. I've spoken with both Onetel and Talk Talk and they say it will take about five weeks for the broadband switch to take place and a lot earlier for the phone switch. They say I should not notice anything except for the day they actually switch the broadband.

Is it as straightforward as that or is this because I'm basically transferring from one service to another within the same company?

Although I've heard a few horror stories, I'm hoping things have settled down now and hopefully this will save me a few bob.

The only downside I could see is that none of their plans include South Africa, but I can get this with the outside phone providers (eg https://www.abroadtel.co.uk) where it is only 4p a minute to landline and 13p a minute to a mobile in South Africa. My question here is will Talk Talk charge me more for making these calls and if so how much? If they do then how do I get round it to keep the calls as cheap as possible?

I'd appreciate any info.
Many thanks
bb

patwa_2

Hi.

Yes, usually the switch to broadband is un-noticeable. Your broadband will go down from anything from 10 mins to a few hours, and this usually happens overnight. The first you know of it is when your old ISP stops working, at which point you set up the modem to use the details from your new provider.

My TalkTalk switch went ahead without a hitch, 3 weeks ahead of schedule in August. I was under impression that that was the time when they had not long launched their service, and demand was through the roof, and therefore I see it as a good thing that if they were able to deliver such good service when under such pressure, the situation should be better now.

You can use the MSE callchecker at https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/callchecker to find the lowest prices for calls to south africa. I use this checkr a lot to call non TalkTalk supported countries, and have never noticed any inaccuracies on my bill, they have always matched the checker's rates + the standard TT connection charge.

You could also look into a PC-based VoIP solution, or if you make a lot of calls, a VoIP solution using standard phones for greater portability. I can imagine there would at least a couple of free VoIP service providers that offer free calls to SA landlines, https://www.voxilla.com has a great forum where you could ask this question.

Hope this helps.

barneybeagle

Thanks for the info Patwa, much appreciated mate.

Just one bit I don't understand is regarding the calls abroad:

"they have always matched the checker's rates + the standard TT connection charge."

I'm not sure what you mean by this, do you mean that what the outside operator is saying it charges is exactly what has shown on your Talk Talk bill and can you confirm how much on average the TT connection fee is please.

On the Talk 3 bundle the rates to SA are about 49p per min landline and approx 75p per min to a mobile so using one of the outside operators is a massive saving.

I'm currently looking into the VOIP option as well and is something I'll probably instigate once the Talk Talk deal is in place and settled down.

Thanks again
bb

patwa_2

Hi, yes that is exactly what I meant. As luck would have it I actually received my bill today so was able to double check with a 'real' scenario. I was charged the published rates for calls to a UK mobile via one of the access providers, plus the call connection charge (which I believe is 3p although it may be slightly more) plus VAT. For one hour and four minutes to a UK mobile this cost me £2.75. Considerably cheaper than the £8.30 approx it would have cost me to dial the number normally, or even the approx £7.50 with the MobileExtra feature. I would have called the mobile number using my inclusive mobile minutes, but I was asked to initiate a group call, so used the free callsto USA to make that call, then the 0844 provider to make the cheap mobile call, and link the two together.

Hussein.

Pegleg2001

I did the switch from OT to TT in August last year. On the whole the switch went OK with proper termination of OT billing. The only delay was in the info pack from TT - it did not arrive. The OT BB connection just stopped working in late Sep. A call to a TT Indian call centre got me up and running on TT in a few mins.

They have been putting customers on the 'BT Wholesale' BB service at the local exchange until they upgrade with their equipment. Beware - some exchanged are not scheduled for many months. I think we were sharing with a lot of other users as the speed was noticably slower - especially at busy times.

Just got a letter from TT saying that their own 8Mb equipment is being installed in the local exchange at the end of the month and to expect some loss of service that day. Fingers crossed!

barneybeagle

Thanks again for the info. I know that my local exchange has only a 1mb max capacity at present, but I'm sure in time this will be upgraded like everywhere else.

Cheers
bb