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How to save on telephone line, calls, broadband and mobile internet
amorphix
Posts: 45 Forumite
This post was originally intended to be a quick heads up on a half-price offer with O2 Broadband. However since I ended up finding how to make significant savings on my telephone line and phone calls too, (even from my mobile) I decided to write a longer post explaining everything.. if you're in a hurry, skip to the parts you're interested in bold capitals, as I do tend to waffle...else, read on!
After paying £50 a month for years to Virgin for (shoddy) Cable broadband and TV (the latter which I was hardly using to justify paying for TV) I decided to look at other providers to see if I could make a saving.
My initial motivation however was not to save money, but rather, to find a more reliable and stable broadband service after being let down by both Virgin and then PlusNet with frequent disconnections and slow speeds.
HALF PRICED UNLIMITED BROADBAND WITH O2: £10.50/month
The best broadband deal I found was with O2 surprisingly. I had been advised when looking for a stable broadband provider that it's generally better to steer clear of big names and go for smaller, specialised providers. However, O2 despite being as big as they come for broadband providers, does actually manage its network usage very well it turns out. They have limits and speed throttling in place on their lower priced services, and an unrestricted and unlimited service for those willing to pay more. This is the sensible way to run a network rather than trying to offer everyone uncapped and unrestricted maximum download speeds. I was happy to pay more for the unrestricted service.
Anyway, back to the deal.. O2 offers half-price for 12 months for existing O2 customers on all their packages. If you're not an O2 customer, read on and I'll explain how to fix that without it costing you hardly anything.
I went for O2's "The Works" broadband package which is their top of the range unrestricted uncapped service (up to 16mb download speeds) with the added benefit of a fixed/static IP address which is handy if like me, you're running your own server from home and want to host your own domain names or run services that require a fixed IP. NB: Most broadband providers either don't offer static IP's or charge a monthly fee for them, so all credit to O2 for offering this as a standard on their "Works" package.
For myself, because I already have a fantastically low priced landline phone line rental deal (see below), I'm only paying £10.50 a month to O2 for "The Works" broadband service. O2 try to get you switch your phone line with them (this is how its presented on the website as a bundled service) but if you tell them on the phone that you only want the broadband service without the O2 telephone line rental, they will do it and adjust £13 off the website quoted prices for you.
Technically I'm not even an O2 customer either, yet I still managed to get the O2 half-price broadband offer. I have no mobile contract, instead, I have an O2 PAYG sim card that I top-up once in a blue moon!
TIP: If you're not on an O2 mobile contract and want to take advantage of their half price broadband for existing O2 customers just order a free O2 PAYG SIM card from them, then activate it with a tiny top up so you get an O2 mobile number (which they will ask you for when you sign up to the broadband offer) and hey presto, you're now an O2 customer! They won't ask whether it's contract or PAYG or how much you spend monthly etc. All they ask is for your O2 mobile phone number.
You can take the O2 SIM card out of your mobile if you like and switch to any network you like as soon as you have completed your broadband registration process. They don't contact you on the O2 number or check that you're actively using an O2 mobile.
O2 BROADBAND REVIEW: OK, before I begin, please keep in mind this is a review of The Works, their top of the range, unrestricted, uncapped service.. When I signed up I was given a date when the service would be transferred from my then current provider PlusNet, which was quite some way off, about 10 days or something like that, which seemed rather a long time to wait. As I recall, it was ready about a day or two earlier. The broadband router arrived early, and installing everything was easy. I did have a few teething problems, with the service appearing to be live, but not actually working. A quick call to O2's freephone help line soon explained that I needed to wait 24 hours for it to be activated and that an O2 SMS alert would confirm when it was live. I'm quite far from the exchange and never get anything like the maximum speeds quoted by providers, but the service with O2 was a vast improvement to PlusNet, in speed terms. For the first few months, the connection was absolutely rock solid, no disconnections or performance problems. However after a few months I began to experience random and eventually persistent daily disconnections with my router just dropping and then reconnecting very quickly. O2 claim this was down to my line having noise and supplied 2 microfilters. The problem has improved, but disconnections persist, just less frequently. I don't know whether this is down to O2's service, or my phone line/their router, O2 are monitoring and we're trying to get to the bottom of it. In fairness to O2, they have been very helpful and their technical people are excellent, first class, and it's a free call phone number. On another note, O2's router has a considerably longer wifi range than most broadband routers..eg I can access my wifi connection my mobile from about 300 feet away from my property. This may be a good or bad thing, depending on how you look at it. However, there's an option on the router allowing you to switch between normal and high power wifi, which I presume will restrict the wifi power for those concerned about security or radiowaves.
HALF PRICED TELEPHONE LINE WITH PRIMUS: £7.08/month
I made a good saving on my landline rental by switching to Primus Telecom. They had a no-thrills line rental offer for light users called "Primus Prepaid Saver Plus", which is basically just a telephone line with free local calls at weekends. It's the cheapest rental price I could find, at around £7 a month (£100 annual fee payable in advance plus £15 cashback from TopCashBack).
PRIMUS REVIEW: It took a leap of faith with this company as they had somewhat mixed reviews and were a relative newcomer to the telecoms market when I joined with them.. Paying for a years service in advance was quite risky, however I decided for the opportunity of a 50% saving it was worth it. Since I don't use the telephone to make calls very often, I figured it's just a phone line.. what can possibly go wrong!
BT are responsible for any repairs etc anyway so that reassured me. The only thing I had concerns about was Primus having hidden charges or providing a poor line service which might affect my broadband connection. I checked this latter point with Primus, and they reassured me that the line and connections etc are maintained by BT (as is the case with all BT network resellers) and so nothing Primus did would ever affect my broadband service.
I can say, I've had no problems at all with Primus as a company either. Everything has been straightforward and their billing practices are open and transparent. They also honoured the £15 cashback deal I mentioned which was credited to my TopCashBack account.
Although I did have some problems with my phone line twice, this was due to the socket being very old and also problems with the local connection box being vandalised. On both occasions, Primus dealt with it swiftly. The company is easy to reach via an 0800 free call number (even for support) and they respond to e-mails fairly quickly too. They don't use an overseas call centre and you deal with UK people, and they don't pass you around or put you on hold all the time either!
The only slight negative I would say is that you don't get a paper bill (or even an e-bill (e-mail bill) anymore). To view your call usage billing you need to register at their website and login. They send you an e-mail notice monthly when there's a new bill to ready view, but don't tell you how much it is. Payment is by direct debit which is compulsory I think.
And last but not least...Primus also allows the use of the 18185 call diversion free calls service, perhaps one of the best kept money saving secrets on the net! More about next..
FREE UNLIMITED UK LANDLINE CALLS - 18185
18185 is a great VOIP service (voice over internet) that lets you make unlimited free UK landline calls any time of the day and doesn't require any special hardware or changes to how you use your existing phone services and phones. Basically, you just register at their website for free to create an account, then dial 18185 before whatever number you wish to call, and then say goodbye to those big phone bills! I can't praise this service enough. It's saved me an absolute fortune and my bills, are literally just a couple of quid a month at worse. All calls to UK landlines* (local and national) are free, any time of the day and there's no call duration restriction. You can even use 18185 from your mobile phone and you can make huge savings when calling mobiles and overseas numbers from your landline.
18185 REVIEW: I've been using 18185 daily for months, mainly to keep in contact with friends and family in the UK which costs me nothing. Because the service is routing calls over VOIP the line quality can sometimes suffer and occasionally it's very bad when you get connected. If that happens, you just hang up and re-dial and 9 times out of 10, it's perfect the next time. Since the service is free, with no subscription charges or fees at all (apart from low rate charges to non-UK landline numbers), I think that's hardly worth complaining about having to redial now and again. I've never had a call go weird/crackly or disconnect on me. The service is very stable and neither you or the other person will know the call is being routed over VOIP, it just sounds like a normal call.
As I run a business and need to call suppliers and customers overseas, so I use 18185 whenever I can't use Skype. I pay just half a pence a minute to the states (even to mobiles!). The 18185 service gives you a handy voice prompt confirming the calling rate before it connects you.
TIP: If you have trouble remembering the 18185 number initially (eventually it becomes second nature!) then if you have a DECT phone, you'll normally have an option somewhere on the phone to make the phone dial a prefix number in front of the numbers in your phonebook or numbers entered manually. Just enter 18185 there as the prefix to dial. Most modern phones have this feature, so check out your phones user guide handbook.
WARNING: Although you can use 18185 on mobiles, the procedure for doing so is different to using it on a landline. You need to dial an 020 london telephone number to connect to the 18185 service and then wait for the voice prompt before proceeding to dial a landline or mobile number. Most mobile networks will charge you for the call to the 020 number at their standard landline rates. So if you're expecting a free call to a landline from your mobile and end up staying on the phone for ages, you could be in for a nasty shock when the bill arrives, or lose all your credit if you're on PAYG, so just keep that in mind! On mobiles 18185 is not free to landlines. It will however still save you money on some calls from mobiles, particularly if calling other mobiles or overseas numbers. If you're calling UK landlines, don't do it from your mobile, unless you're sure your network won't charge you. I've tried a few networks (GiffGaff, O2 and Orange and none of these will route the call the free, they all charge for the call at their usual UK landline tariff)
* Only calls to geographical numbers are free, i.e. those with an area code starting 01 or 02 etc. You have to pay to non-geographical numbers 0844/0845 etc) which are charged at the standard rates.
FREE UNLIMITED MOBILE TO MOBILE CALLS - GIFFGAFF
If you're a heavy mobile user, and need to make free calls to other mobile users, then do yourself a favour and consider either switching to GiffGaff, or adding one of their free simcards to your phone if it supports multiple simcards.
This network has a fantastic offer..all GiffGaff network users get unlimited mobile calls to each other, for free, any time of the day. There's no contract, monthly fee, or minimum monthly top-up required either to get the free GiffGaff calls. They also have the cheapest non-contract mobile tariff I've seen by far, 16ppm for calls and 7p for texts, with very generous "Goody Bag" offers for regular top-ups..i.e. unlimited mobile internet access for £12 a month.
GIFFGAFF REVIEW:The Good:The GiffGaff network is actually using the O2 network, so the coverage and reception is perfect as you expect from O2. GiffGaff is actually a community, where other users provide support via a forum, and you can make £10 for referring new members to the community. The idea is, this is a network that's run by and for its members, with no shareholders or big overheads. The low operational costs means lower tariff costs to members. The not so good:Because of the way the support is provided as I mentioned, you can't get hold of real people on the phone and speak to anyone. There's no phone numbers basically. Everything is done via messaging online or the forum, and it can be a bit slow to get answers sometimes. GiffGaff's service charging is somewhat confusing to get your head around. They don't have contracts, but have contract-style packages called "GoodyBags" which are attached to different monthly top-up amounts. You "purchase" these GoodyBags which means instead of getting top-up credit added to your phone you get the GoodyBag benefits for 30 days (i.e. talk-time, text messages, data allowance), but it's a case of a "use them or lose them", as they expire, so for light users, purchasing "GoodyBags" is not great value and it's better to stay on the standard tariff without any free mins or texts but keeping the credit value on your phone. GiffGaff's billing is not transparent either, with no way to access a usage bill. There's no charge alerts either after calls or texts etc, all you have is a balance alert option which is switched off by default. Unless you're good at math, you will find it difficult to work out how much data, calls and texts are costing you. Unusually, there's no option to top-up via your mobile unless you purchase a voucher online which you can keep and use later on the phone. It may seem from my review that the negative outweighs the good, but really it's just a case of getting used to GiffGaff which is a very different approach to operating a mobile phone network. If you compare the cost and benefits offered, it's far better value than anything any of the other networks can offer, however, for light users you do need to be aware as I said, that the Goodybag benefits do not roll over and so its more economical to choose the straightforward top-up option and have credit on the phone, rather than purchasing a Goodybag. GiffGaff's website does a monthly assessment of your usage and offers a recommendation on which Goodybag is best for you, or if you're a light user, it advises that you should stay as an ordinary top-up credit user and not purchase Goodybags. The free GiffGaff to GiffGaff mobile calls is what makes this network most appealling and unique, for a business, it's a no brainer. However if your experience is anything like mine, then getting your friends and family to switch to GiffGaff, may be quite a challenge as people tend to prefer to stick to their own networks and any offer free mins to any network on contract packages.
FREE MOBILE INTERNET ACCESS ON ANY NETWORK - O2WIFI
O2 are now offering free unrestricted internet access to their new O2Wifi network to all mobile network users. This replaces "The Cloud" and BTOpenzone, and basically lets you access O2 wifi "hotspots" freely from any mobile phone simply by installing the O2Wifi app available for Android, Windows and iphone. So where's the catch? It's O2, there's got to be a catch, right? Well there's none! It really is free to all network users regardless of whether you're a contract or PAYG user. Do you have to go into McDonalds and coffee bars etc to use it? Yes and No. Whilst most of the O2 wifi hotspots are located in places like that, you don't have to go inside or buy anything to use those hotspots (in most cases). O2 has made these new wifi hotspots more powerful than your average O2 home broadband routers, so their range goes well beyond the walls of the businesses that are taking part. Also some invisible BTOpenzone/O2 Broadband home and business broadband users are part of the O2wifi network (they can opt-out).
O2WIFI REVIEW: I have just installed this myself on my dual sim GiffGaff and Orange mobile. It works flawlessly and just sits in the background searching for wifi hotspots. Whenever it finds one, it switches and logs you into it without you even needing to do a thing! A little pop up alert tells you that you're connected (and when you lose connection it alerts you). You can also use the app to conveniently search for hotspots by postcode or area name. I have only had this a few days so can't comment on how well it works in the real world, but on doing some searches of popular places I visit, like the library in town, I can see that O2's wifi hotspot network looks to be extensive and most areas I would visit I should in theory have no trouble getting internet access.
So in theory, the O2wifi network will work in some areas in between the known listed O2wifi hotspots that come up on the app. I've proved this to be the case, with O2wifi hotspots detected and connected to using the app, outside my flat, approx half a mile away from the nearest official O2wifi at a McDonald's. Neat. I can't comment how well the connection will work for bandwidth hungry apps like Skype or how stable it will be if moving around..that's something I'm yet to test!
If all that has confused the hell out of you, here's the short summary version:
1. Switch landline to Primus Prepay Saver Plus via Top Cash back to cut landline rental in half.
2. Sign-up free to 18185 for free UK landline calls.
3. Use O2's half-price offer on broadband for existing customers offer, if not an existing customer, order a free O2 PAYG sim card.
4. Install O2Wifi app for free mobile internet access.
5. Consider using GiffGaff if regularly making mobile to mobile calls, for free calls.
After paying £50 a month for years to Virgin for (shoddy) Cable broadband and TV (the latter which I was hardly using to justify paying for TV) I decided to look at other providers to see if I could make a saving.
My initial motivation however was not to save money, but rather, to find a more reliable and stable broadband service after being let down by both Virgin and then PlusNet with frequent disconnections and slow speeds.
HALF PRICED UNLIMITED BROADBAND WITH O2: £10.50/month
The best broadband deal I found was with O2 surprisingly. I had been advised when looking for a stable broadband provider that it's generally better to steer clear of big names and go for smaller, specialised providers. However, O2 despite being as big as they come for broadband providers, does actually manage its network usage very well it turns out. They have limits and speed throttling in place on their lower priced services, and an unrestricted and unlimited service for those willing to pay more. This is the sensible way to run a network rather than trying to offer everyone uncapped and unrestricted maximum download speeds. I was happy to pay more for the unrestricted service.
Anyway, back to the deal.. O2 offers half-price for 12 months for existing O2 customers on all their packages. If you're not an O2 customer, read on and I'll explain how to fix that without it costing you hardly anything.
I went for O2's "The Works" broadband package which is their top of the range unrestricted uncapped service (up to 16mb download speeds) with the added benefit of a fixed/static IP address which is handy if like me, you're running your own server from home and want to host your own domain names or run services that require a fixed IP. NB: Most broadband providers either don't offer static IP's or charge a monthly fee for them, so all credit to O2 for offering this as a standard on their "Works" package.
For myself, because I already have a fantastically low priced landline phone line rental deal (see below), I'm only paying £10.50 a month to O2 for "The Works" broadband service. O2 try to get you switch your phone line with them (this is how its presented on the website as a bundled service) but if you tell them on the phone that you only want the broadband service without the O2 telephone line rental, they will do it and adjust £13 off the website quoted prices for you.
Technically I'm not even an O2 customer either, yet I still managed to get the O2 half-price broadband offer. I have no mobile contract, instead, I have an O2 PAYG sim card that I top-up once in a blue moon!
TIP: If you're not on an O2 mobile contract and want to take advantage of their half price broadband for existing O2 customers just order a free O2 PAYG SIM card from them, then activate it with a tiny top up so you get an O2 mobile number (which they will ask you for when you sign up to the broadband offer) and hey presto, you're now an O2 customer! They won't ask whether it's contract or PAYG or how much you spend monthly etc. All they ask is for your O2 mobile phone number.
You can take the O2 SIM card out of your mobile if you like and switch to any network you like as soon as you have completed your broadband registration process. They don't contact you on the O2 number or check that you're actively using an O2 mobile.
O2 BROADBAND REVIEW: OK, before I begin, please keep in mind this is a review of The Works, their top of the range, unrestricted, uncapped service.. When I signed up I was given a date when the service would be transferred from my then current provider PlusNet, which was quite some way off, about 10 days or something like that, which seemed rather a long time to wait. As I recall, it was ready about a day or two earlier. The broadband router arrived early, and installing everything was easy. I did have a few teething problems, with the service appearing to be live, but not actually working. A quick call to O2's freephone help line soon explained that I needed to wait 24 hours for it to be activated and that an O2 SMS alert would confirm when it was live. I'm quite far from the exchange and never get anything like the maximum speeds quoted by providers, but the service with O2 was a vast improvement to PlusNet, in speed terms. For the first few months, the connection was absolutely rock solid, no disconnections or performance problems. However after a few months I began to experience random and eventually persistent daily disconnections with my router just dropping and then reconnecting very quickly. O2 claim this was down to my line having noise and supplied 2 microfilters. The problem has improved, but disconnections persist, just less frequently. I don't know whether this is down to O2's service, or my phone line/their router, O2 are monitoring and we're trying to get to the bottom of it. In fairness to O2, they have been very helpful and their technical people are excellent, first class, and it's a free call phone number. On another note, O2's router has a considerably longer wifi range than most broadband routers..eg I can access my wifi connection my mobile from about 300 feet away from my property. This may be a good or bad thing, depending on how you look at it. However, there's an option on the router allowing you to switch between normal and high power wifi, which I presume will restrict the wifi power for those concerned about security or radiowaves.
HALF PRICED TELEPHONE LINE WITH PRIMUS: £7.08/month
I made a good saving on my landline rental by switching to Primus Telecom. They had a no-thrills line rental offer for light users called "Primus Prepaid Saver Plus", which is basically just a telephone line with free local calls at weekends. It's the cheapest rental price I could find, at around £7 a month (£100 annual fee payable in advance plus £15 cashback from TopCashBack).
PRIMUS REVIEW: It took a leap of faith with this company as they had somewhat mixed reviews and were a relative newcomer to the telecoms market when I joined with them.. Paying for a years service in advance was quite risky, however I decided for the opportunity of a 50% saving it was worth it. Since I don't use the telephone to make calls very often, I figured it's just a phone line.. what can possibly go wrong!
BT are responsible for any repairs etc anyway so that reassured me. The only thing I had concerns about was Primus having hidden charges or providing a poor line service which might affect my broadband connection. I checked this latter point with Primus, and they reassured me that the line and connections etc are maintained by BT (as is the case with all BT network resellers) and so nothing Primus did would ever affect my broadband service.
I can say, I've had no problems at all with Primus as a company either. Everything has been straightforward and their billing practices are open and transparent. They also honoured the £15 cashback deal I mentioned which was credited to my TopCashBack account.
Although I did have some problems with my phone line twice, this was due to the socket being very old and also problems with the local connection box being vandalised. On both occasions, Primus dealt with it swiftly. The company is easy to reach via an 0800 free call number (even for support) and they respond to e-mails fairly quickly too. They don't use an overseas call centre and you deal with UK people, and they don't pass you around or put you on hold all the time either!
The only slight negative I would say is that you don't get a paper bill (or even an e-bill (e-mail bill) anymore). To view your call usage billing you need to register at their website and login. They send you an e-mail notice monthly when there's a new bill to ready view, but don't tell you how much it is. Payment is by direct debit which is compulsory I think.
And last but not least...Primus also allows the use of the 18185 call diversion free calls service, perhaps one of the best kept money saving secrets on the net! More about next..
FREE UNLIMITED UK LANDLINE CALLS - 18185
18185 is a great VOIP service (voice over internet) that lets you make unlimited free UK landline calls any time of the day and doesn't require any special hardware or changes to how you use your existing phone services and phones. Basically, you just register at their website for free to create an account, then dial 18185 before whatever number you wish to call, and then say goodbye to those big phone bills! I can't praise this service enough. It's saved me an absolute fortune and my bills, are literally just a couple of quid a month at worse. All calls to UK landlines* (local and national) are free, any time of the day and there's no call duration restriction. You can even use 18185 from your mobile phone and you can make huge savings when calling mobiles and overseas numbers from your landline.
18185 REVIEW: I've been using 18185 daily for months, mainly to keep in contact with friends and family in the UK which costs me nothing. Because the service is routing calls over VOIP the line quality can sometimes suffer and occasionally it's very bad when you get connected. If that happens, you just hang up and re-dial and 9 times out of 10, it's perfect the next time. Since the service is free, with no subscription charges or fees at all (apart from low rate charges to non-UK landline numbers), I think that's hardly worth complaining about having to redial now and again. I've never had a call go weird/crackly or disconnect on me. The service is very stable and neither you or the other person will know the call is being routed over VOIP, it just sounds like a normal call.
As I run a business and need to call suppliers and customers overseas, so I use 18185 whenever I can't use Skype. I pay just half a pence a minute to the states (even to mobiles!). The 18185 service gives you a handy voice prompt confirming the calling rate before it connects you.
TIP: If you have trouble remembering the 18185 number initially (eventually it becomes second nature!) then if you have a DECT phone, you'll normally have an option somewhere on the phone to make the phone dial a prefix number in front of the numbers in your phonebook or numbers entered manually. Just enter 18185 there as the prefix to dial. Most modern phones have this feature, so check out your phones user guide handbook.
WARNING: Although you can use 18185 on mobiles, the procedure for doing so is different to using it on a landline. You need to dial an 020 london telephone number to connect to the 18185 service and then wait for the voice prompt before proceeding to dial a landline or mobile number. Most mobile networks will charge you for the call to the 020 number at their standard landline rates. So if you're expecting a free call to a landline from your mobile and end up staying on the phone for ages, you could be in for a nasty shock when the bill arrives, or lose all your credit if you're on PAYG, so just keep that in mind! On mobiles 18185 is not free to landlines. It will however still save you money on some calls from mobiles, particularly if calling other mobiles or overseas numbers. If you're calling UK landlines, don't do it from your mobile, unless you're sure your network won't charge you. I've tried a few networks (GiffGaff, O2 and Orange and none of these will route the call the free, they all charge for the call at their usual UK landline tariff)
* Only calls to geographical numbers are free, i.e. those with an area code starting 01 or 02 etc. You have to pay to non-geographical numbers 0844/0845 etc) which are charged at the standard rates.
FREE UNLIMITED MOBILE TO MOBILE CALLS - GIFFGAFF
If you're a heavy mobile user, and need to make free calls to other mobile users, then do yourself a favour and consider either switching to GiffGaff, or adding one of their free simcards to your phone if it supports multiple simcards.
This network has a fantastic offer..all GiffGaff network users get unlimited mobile calls to each other, for free, any time of the day. There's no contract, monthly fee, or minimum monthly top-up required either to get the free GiffGaff calls. They also have the cheapest non-contract mobile tariff I've seen by far, 16ppm for calls and 7p for texts, with very generous "Goody Bag" offers for regular top-ups..i.e. unlimited mobile internet access for £12 a month.
GIFFGAFF REVIEW:The Good:The GiffGaff network is actually using the O2 network, so the coverage and reception is perfect as you expect from O2. GiffGaff is actually a community, where other users provide support via a forum, and you can make £10 for referring new members to the community. The idea is, this is a network that's run by and for its members, with no shareholders or big overheads. The low operational costs means lower tariff costs to members. The not so good:Because of the way the support is provided as I mentioned, you can't get hold of real people on the phone and speak to anyone. There's no phone numbers basically. Everything is done via messaging online or the forum, and it can be a bit slow to get answers sometimes. GiffGaff's service charging is somewhat confusing to get your head around. They don't have contracts, but have contract-style packages called "GoodyBags" which are attached to different monthly top-up amounts. You "purchase" these GoodyBags which means instead of getting top-up credit added to your phone you get the GoodyBag benefits for 30 days (i.e. talk-time, text messages, data allowance), but it's a case of a "use them or lose them", as they expire, so for light users, purchasing "GoodyBags" is not great value and it's better to stay on the standard tariff without any free mins or texts but keeping the credit value on your phone. GiffGaff's billing is not transparent either, with no way to access a usage bill. There's no charge alerts either after calls or texts etc, all you have is a balance alert option which is switched off by default. Unless you're good at math, you will find it difficult to work out how much data, calls and texts are costing you. Unusually, there's no option to top-up via your mobile unless you purchase a voucher online which you can keep and use later on the phone. It may seem from my review that the negative outweighs the good, but really it's just a case of getting used to GiffGaff which is a very different approach to operating a mobile phone network. If you compare the cost and benefits offered, it's far better value than anything any of the other networks can offer, however, for light users you do need to be aware as I said, that the Goodybag benefits do not roll over and so its more economical to choose the straightforward top-up option and have credit on the phone, rather than purchasing a Goodybag. GiffGaff's website does a monthly assessment of your usage and offers a recommendation on which Goodybag is best for you, or if you're a light user, it advises that you should stay as an ordinary top-up credit user and not purchase Goodybags. The free GiffGaff to GiffGaff mobile calls is what makes this network most appealling and unique, for a business, it's a no brainer. However if your experience is anything like mine, then getting your friends and family to switch to GiffGaff, may be quite a challenge as people tend to prefer to stick to their own networks and any offer free mins to any network on contract packages.
FREE MOBILE INTERNET ACCESS ON ANY NETWORK - O2WIFI
O2 are now offering free unrestricted internet access to their new O2Wifi network to all mobile network users. This replaces "The Cloud" and BTOpenzone, and basically lets you access O2 wifi "hotspots" freely from any mobile phone simply by installing the O2Wifi app available for Android, Windows and iphone. So where's the catch? It's O2, there's got to be a catch, right? Well there's none! It really is free to all network users regardless of whether you're a contract or PAYG user. Do you have to go into McDonalds and coffee bars etc to use it? Yes and No. Whilst most of the O2 wifi hotspots are located in places like that, you don't have to go inside or buy anything to use those hotspots (in most cases). O2 has made these new wifi hotspots more powerful than your average O2 home broadband routers, so their range goes well beyond the walls of the businesses that are taking part. Also some invisible BTOpenzone/O2 Broadband home and business broadband users are part of the O2wifi network (they can opt-out).
O2WIFI REVIEW: I have just installed this myself on my dual sim GiffGaff and Orange mobile. It works flawlessly and just sits in the background searching for wifi hotspots. Whenever it finds one, it switches and logs you into it without you even needing to do a thing! A little pop up alert tells you that you're connected (and when you lose connection it alerts you). You can also use the app to conveniently search for hotspots by postcode or area name. I have only had this a few days so can't comment on how well it works in the real world, but on doing some searches of popular places I visit, like the library in town, I can see that O2's wifi hotspot network looks to be extensive and most areas I would visit I should in theory have no trouble getting internet access.
So in theory, the O2wifi network will work in some areas in between the known listed O2wifi hotspots that come up on the app. I've proved this to be the case, with O2wifi hotspots detected and connected to using the app, outside my flat, approx half a mile away from the nearest official O2wifi at a McDonald's. Neat. I can't comment how well the connection will work for bandwidth hungry apps like Skype or how stable it will be if moving around..that's something I'm yet to test!
If all that has confused the hell out of you, here's the short summary version:
1. Switch landline to Primus Prepay Saver Plus via Top Cash back to cut landline rental in half.
2. Sign-up free to 18185 for free UK landline calls.
3. Use O2's half-price offer on broadband for existing customers offer, if not an existing customer, order a free O2 PAYG sim card.
4. Install O2Wifi app for free mobile internet access.
5. Consider using GiffGaff if regularly making mobile to mobile calls, for free calls.
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Comments
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O2 is an ex broadband provider, it has joined the choir eternal.That gum you like is coming back in style.0
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I'm sorry but this is the worst advice i've ever read. Primus is not good. The VOIP service is not free.
O2 is the worst network for 3G un the UK and were even fined by Ofcom for not having a good network. You play up O2 since it's the best thing since sliced bread.
and based on your previous posts i'm 100% sure you work for O2. The amount of pro O2 stuff in your posts is just ridiculous.0 -
I don't get an O2 signal at my house - even though the map says it's a good signal. Signed up with somebody else/in a contract so couldn't move even if I wanted to.0
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The OP has clearly got carried away. EG For starters 18185 is not free to use at the very least their is a call connection charge.
Recommending Primus as a decent supplier must be a joke see this thread for starters. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4469843
Plus Giffgaff dont offer the cheapest non-contract mobile tariff .Lots cheaper then them.0 -
Plus it's not VOIP so you need a landline or free minutes on your mobile if you use their geographic number access instead of the override number but that then costs per minute charges or at least used to.wongawonga wrote: »The OP has clearly got carried away. EG For starters 18185 is not free to use at the very least their is a call connection charge.0 -
wongawonga wrote: »The OP has clearly got carried away............
Yes he must like the sound of his own keyboard.
Over three thousand words of bovine excrement!
:rotfl::doh: Blue text on this forum usually signifies hyperlinks, so click on them!..:wall:0 -
03 non-geographic numbers MUST also be charged at the same rate as 01 and 02 numbers and MUST be included in call bundles.Only calls to geographical numbers are free, i.e. those with an area code starting 01 or 02 etc. You have to pay to non-geographical numbers 0844/0845 etc) which are charged at the standard rates.
It is 084, 087 and 09 non-geographic numbers that are chargeable. These are all revenue share numbers. It's a little known fact that the revenue share mechanism is identical for 084, 087 and 09 numbers. The only difference between the number ranges is the level of payment involved. All 09 numbers and some 087 numbers also come under additional PRS regulation.
Under Ofcom's "unbundled tariffs" plans announced recently, the revenue share premium will become known as the "service charge" and your phone operators markup will become known as the "access charge". Once the new system comes into use, in late 2014, Ofcom will impose several simple requirements:
- The "service charge" must be declared every time an 084, 087 or 09 phone number is advertised. It will depend on the exact phone number called.
- The "access charge" must be a single price for all 084, 087 and 09 numbers. It will be allowed to vary from tariff to tariff and from operator to operator.
This will expose that the party you are calling is making money from the call and it will make comparing call rates between different providers much simpler than at present.Businesses using 084, 087 or 09 numbers will soon need to display details of the inbuilt Service Charge under Ofcom's "unbundled tariffs" plans.
Businesses using 084, 087 or 09 numbers for customer service, complaints, renewals, etc, will need to swap to an 01, 02, 03 or 080 number before the Consumer Rights Directive comes into effect June 2014.0 -
Maybe I have misunderstood the O/P's post.
I can see that landline to landline is FREE, so where is the connection charge mentioned. I'm asking on behalf of someone that has a BT landline and only receives free calls at weekend. If by signing up to 18185 they can call 24/7, then surely that must be OK?This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0 -
Not sure exactly what you are getting at. A 18185 call will cost you a connection charge (used to be 5p but may be different now) plus a per minute cost depending on destination. Where the destination is a landline the per minute cost is (or at least used to be) 0p so you only pay 5p for the call.
You can't use numbers like 18185 on mobiles or cable phones so they provide a geographic number for you to call which will hopefully come within your mobile bundle so be zero cost on the mobile but 18185 will make a per minute charge (used to be 0.5p) which will be debitted from the registered credit card each month along with any connection costs.
It can make senese to use services like 18185 (I used to) but not always - especially as there are some good call packages these days.0 -
kwikbreaks wrote: »Not sure exactly what you are getting at. A 18185 call will cost you a connection charge (used to be 5p but may be different now) plus a per minute cost depending on destination.
What I am getting at is this. The caller would be phoning from Peterborough using a bt landline to northampton using a service that says free calls to uk landlines. At no place on their home page does it say a connection charge will apply.This is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0
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