18185 pre-dialler? Orchid dialler?

jem16

Andy_WSM wrote: »

Wow! Good old regulators. Wonder how much BT back handed them for that one?!

The regulation was passed many years to ensure that there was competition amongst telephone providers as obviously BT had the monopoly. It was never meant to last forever. Now the regulator presumably believes there is a level playing field and is no longer putting that constraint on BT.

Andy_WSM

jem16 wrote: »

The regulation was passed many years to ensure that there was competition amongst telephone providers as obviously BT had the monopoly. It was never meant to last forever. Now the regulator presumably believes there is a level playing field and is no longer putting that constraint on BT.

But by removing it, surely operators like 18185, 1899 etc will be driven out of business, thereby reducing competition once again?!

jem16

Andy_WSM wrote: »

But by removing it, surely operators like 18185, 1899 etc will be driven out of business, thereby reducing competition once again?!

Quite possibly. However you should be able to use the 0800 access number but it may be dearer. Perhaps 1899 etc need to reduce that cost?

Heinz

The 0808 access numbers 1899, 18866 and 18185 provide mean some calls are more expensive simply because they have to pay for the freephone call onto their network.

Having said that, the main calls hit in that way are UK 01/02/03 calls - which, instead of costing 5p connection and 0p/minute, cost 5p connection and 1p/minute. That's still vastly cheaper than any of the landline providers charge for an off-package 01/02/013 call but it wouldn't take many calls to make opting for an inclusive calls package cheaper.

mbailey

Andy_WSM wrote: »

I've made contact with Orchid Telecom now and they sell a box called "smart dialler" for under £30 inc VAT & Postage, so will likely order one of them on Monday unless anything else comes up.

I dropped the "inclusive calls" on BT last week. Keep forgetting to dial 18185 and to my horror found BT are charging 24p for a local call lasting seconds.

I assume this?

http://www.smallbusinesstelephonesystemsuk.co.uk/business_cpsdiallers.html

Do we know much about this product, for example how is it configured?

Andy_WSM

mbailey wrote: »

I assume this?

http://www.smallbusinesstelephonesystemsuk.co.uk/business_cpsdiallers.html

Do we know much about this product, for example how is it configured?

I stopped looking at the point that people started telling me CPS wouldn't be carried by BT in the near future.

Stompa

Andy_WSM wrote: »

I stopped looking at the point that people started telling me CPS wouldn't be carried by BT in the near future.

I know the obligation for them to do so is being removed, and it would obviously make economic sense to BT to stop allowing CPS, but have they actually said they will do so yet?

poppasmurf_bewdley

I have an Orchid dialer somewhere that is no longer used since my kids have left home.

I'll dig it out and put it on eBay.

banjo67xxx

OMG Virgin Media has just put the price of local calls up to 11p/min with 16p connection fee!!!

As Orchid now want an arm and a leg for their auto-dialer I've purchased a brand new one from China. (Search Ebay.com for "line powerd phone auto dialer work with pstn line/ip calling card /LCR/DTMF/voip")

BTW, if you have a Santander Zero card you have to press currency options twice in Paypal before it will let you pay in US$

I'll let you know how well the dialler works when it arrives. But I'd rather pay US 9¢/min for international VOIP FAXes via 0800 access than UK 27p for the first minute with Virgin. (For voice VOIP calls I only pay US 1.5¢/min, but the FAX machine needs to use a PSTN phone line, hence the dialler)

FYI, for ordinary voice calls you don't need a dialler if you use an IP phone such as the Siemens Gigaset A510 IP VOIP DECT phone I have. It works just like an ordinary phone and I pay less than 1p/min for most of my international calls.

mnbvcxz

banjo67xxx wrote: »

As Orchid now want an arm and a leg for their auto-dialer I've purchased a brand new one from China. (Search Ebay.com for "line powered phone auto dialer work with pstn line/ip calling card /LCR/DTMF/voip")

I'll let you know how well the dialler works when it arrives.

Wow at $9 that does look good doesn't it? Odd that they are selling three different boxes for different prices all with identical descriptions? A shame it makes no mention of how to program them, but perhaps it will be obvious. I imagine you will need a few adaptors to a uk phone plug as well.

Look forward to hearing how well it works.