can i bar call to mobile phones (i am on 18866)

purply

Hello,

Any advice?

People in my household are taking liberties with the phone and i would like to bar calls to mobile phones. Its not just calls to mobiles, people are using a paging service (?) to mobiles, which is 25p each time.

I pay line rental to BT, my calls are routed through 18866 and my provider is onetel.

Is there anything i can do. Don't really want to go one-way as its not an option but i really feel that people are taking the mick and its me who pays the bills!

I could go with 1899, but thats 4 bills then that i would be getting a month...is it really worth it it?

Thanks

bbb_uk

You say you use Call18866 but to do this means you either manually dial 18866 before each call, your phone's memory is setup, or you use a automated dialler like the one from Orchid Electronics.

If you do use the dialler from Orchid Electronics then this can be setup to bar mobile calls and various other calls.

Blocking calls to mobiles was discussed in little more detail here.

purply

Hi,
Thank you for your quick reply!

Yes, i do use the Orchid dialler.

I think people in my household assume that because the calls are cheaper, they can use the phone as much as they like, (now that i have 18866, onetel, and the orchid dialler), but its actually more expensive because they ring mobile phones.

With 18866, could i bar all calls to mobile phones and use 121 to override it when i want to, rather than having to choose which numbers i can ring?

BTW, is 121 a prefix before a dialled number? (sorry for asking the obvious)

Thanks

Nicholas

purply wrote:

Hi,
Thank you for your quick reply!

Yes, i do use the Orchid dialler.

I think people in my household assume that because the calls are cheaper, they can use the phone as much as they like, (now that i have 18866, onetel, and the orchid dialler), but its actually more expensive because they ring mobile phones.

With 18866, could i bar all calls to mobile phones and use 121 to override it when i want to, rather than having to choose which numbers i can ring?

BTW, is 121 a prefix before a dialled number? (sorry for asking the obvious)

Thanks

Yes. 121 is a prefix before a dialled number. But what is to stop the others from dialling the prefix? I think you are able to alter the prefix for overrides to one of your choosing, providing you have the CW software, and can get the dialler to dial home.

purply

Hi,

I would be the only one who knows the prefix as nobody else in my household really knows what the orchid dialler is!!

They would assume that calls to mobile phones have been barred and wouldn't question it. They'd think it was BT or summat.

bbb_uk

Nicholas wrote:

Yes. 121 is a prefix before a dialled number. But what is to stop the others from dialling the prefix? I think you are able to alter the prefix for overrides to one of your choosing, providing you have the CW software, and can get the dialler to dial home.

You are able to alter the 121 prefix or possibly use your own (within reason) but Orchid would have to set this up for you. If the people in your house are aware that its the dialler that is blocking calls (like mobiles) then they'll simply unplug it. Therefore just mention that you have asked BT to block calls to mobiles, etc and don't tell them about any override codes.

Heinz

You could just program the Orchid to dial your own number whenever anybody dialled 07xxx - assuming you don't have 1571 that'd give them the engaged tone every time!

santana-mx3

That's a clever one Heinz!

purply

hi
i emailed 18866 and they dont actually have the service whereby they can bar calls to mobile phones.
then i realise, its the orchid dialler that actually sets this up for you, not 18866! i will ring orchid.

pinkonion

A baseball bat or threat of one could do the trick

mickmg

If they twig its the Orchid dialler stopping them and they do unplug it why not use BT Call Barring service. It will cost £1.75 (incl. VAT) per month . You decide if you want to bar national, international, mobile, premium rate No's or whatever and only you will have the pin No to override it. At £1.75 it should work out cost effective and it wouldn't matter what they did with the orchid dialler.