Cheapest Home Phones Provider discussion area

Former_MSE_Andrea

To discuss the Cheapest Home Phones Provider article click reply.

Heinz

Personally, I'd have liked Martin to have included in the new article a warning about line rental providers' T&Cs.

I believe only BT are obligated to allow customers to route their calls over other firms (e.g. 18866, 1899) and others have the option to bar, disconnect, surcharge or whatever other draconian act they feel like.

OneTel, for example, now offer line rental for £9.99/month - 51p less than BT but Section 3.4 of their T&Cs states:

Section 3.4:-

3.4 If you are a Line Rental Services customer and elect to use another provider for some or all of your calls we may at our sole discretion decide to (i) bar your use of indirect access codes, (ii) charge you a higher fee for your use of the Line Rental Service or (iii) disconnect the Line Rental Service.

Now that's a pit waiting to be fallen into ............

Edinburghlass_2

In fact it is also in TalkTalk and Ontel's CPS T&C that they may restrict you using another company for your calls but in practise they don't actually stop you.

Heinz

edinburghlass wrote:

In fact it is also in TalkTalk and Ontel's CPS T&C that they may restrict you using another company for your calls but in practise they don't actually stop you.

I suggest you replace the the word "actually" with the word "currently" in that sentence EL.

Anyway, the fact that the CPS T&Cs as well as the line rental T&Cs include such a clause just reinforces my disappointment that Martin did not include such a warning in the revised article.

crunchy_with_ketchup

# Evenings and Weekend packages. The additional cost of these is £6 with BT, £5 with Talk Talk, £4 with One.Tel and £3.75 with Toucan. This is worth more consideration, as with the cheapest if you make over 190 evening and weekend calls a month, just over 6 a day, you’d save. If you’re doing this, there’s nothing stopping you using call18866 on top for making daytime and mobile calls; just dial the prefix.

Talk Talk are currently offering Free Evening and Weekend calls with no monthly charge, Onetel offer free weekend calls (though the latter is mentioned later on in the article.

crunchy_with_ketchup

Heinz wrote:

I suggest you replace the the word "actually" with the word "currently" in that sentence EL.

Anyway, the fact that the CPS T&Cs as well as the line rental T&Cs include such a clause just reinforces my disappointment that Martin did not include such a warning in the revised article.

I guess if currently comes to an end, folk like me will simply ditch the CPS company, move back to BT's warm embrace and use 18866 eves and weekends too. So the CPS company will lose all revenue (like the few 0870 etc I can't find an alternative for).

Graham1

Can a CPS carrier even technically see if you have used any indirect access codes (1899 18866 etc.) ?

Since the line is still connected to a BT exchange and it is the exchange which is programmed on how to route the call and to act on the indirect access code I suspect not.

My understanding is the alternate carriers only have their equipment at the Tandem or transit exchanges (one level up) and don't see the call until it is routed onto their switch.

I suppose it would be technically possible for the BT switch to be programmed to no longer accept the indirect access code but would they ever do this as this would also preclude call routing over BT's network ?

Heinz

Graham1 wrote:

Can a CPS carrier even technically see if you have used any indirect access codes (1899 18866 etc.)?

Since the line is still connected to a BT exchange and it is the exchange which is programmed on how to route the call and to act on the indirect access code I suspect not.

My understanding is the alternate carriers only have their equipment at the Tandem or transit exchanges (one level up) and don't see the call until it is routed onto their switch.

I suppose it would be technically possible for the BT switch to be programmed to no longer accept the indirect access code but would they ever do this as this would also preclude call routing over BT's network?

Good point.

Any BT people out there can give a definitive answer?

indigogirl_3

The article is focussed on BT users with barely a mention of which, if any,of these override providers can be used with NTL
I use 1866 for almost all calls but cant use ONE-TEL for example as I dont have a BT line. More info for NTL users would be appreciated

superhoop

I agree with Indigogirl - more info on options for cable customer would be appreciated. No criticism Martin!

I'm on Telewest, and for example I had to hunt very hard on the 18866 site to find out that the connection fee price rise also applied to us, as well as the 0.5p per minute for landline calls still being in place.

By the way, does anyone know why both 18866 and 1899 keep changing their 0808 numbers (essential for us cable customers)? I programmed the old numbers into my phone and they still seem to work.

Cheers

Steve

Edinburghlass_2

BT has to allow CPS whereas the cable companies don't. However both 18866 and 1899 can be used by NTL and Telewest. Both sites have the call charges listed for use with mobiles and cable companies.