Oldboy / Phone Turkey 10p

[R de N]

Dave,

you can now phone Turkey for 10p/min inc.Vat. [plus 1p connect chg.]

www.call18866.co.uk

Regards, James

[oldboy2000]

Wow ....looks good....and 1p min to USA my sister phones USA a lot is it ok

[R de N]

Originally posted by oldboy2000
Wow ....looks good....and 1p min to USA my sister phones USA a lot is it ok



Don't understand yr last comment - are you asking if ringing the US for 1p/min is OK ?

Or are you saying it is OK [statement]


The answer is YES on both accounts - couldn't be better !!!


James

[oldboy2000]

My sister is using Equitalk at 3p min. to the states. and we thought that was cheap, as long as this works alright we will be laughing all the way to the bank !

I have signed up, 1p min local & national calls is a money saver to me plus my calls to Turkey.

Now waiting for the email to tell me my account is opened and live...

[MTDay]

Signup? - with this one, you just ring and go?
http://www.telediscount.co.uk/accessnumbers.php#T


PS. One question - who'd be crackers enough to route 0845 (local rate) and 0870 (national rate) through 18866 ? - they bump those up to 15p/miniute

[R de N]

Originally posted by MTDay
[B]Signup? - with this one, you just ring and go?
http://www.telediscount.co.uk/accessnumbers.php#T







MTD: "Signup?" - Well why not?

Have you investigated the the pro's & con's of 18866 versus Telediscount [Call Charge Provider] ?


*18866*

The way I see it, having registered the phone lines that we regularly use, all our national and local UK calls, plus all the international calls that we make are 1p/min [inc VAT].

18866 to UK mobiles at 15p/min - But do have a look at some of the 1p/min mobile charges to foreign climes...

24/7, NO Peak / off-peak variations.

Charge rate is announced ["1p/minute"] on completion of dialled number, before the call is routed, without any further delay.

There is a 1p connection charge

As 18866 is a B/P service, our charges are credit card / direct debited monthly.

We pre-fix a five figure number [18866], all our auto-diallers
are coded 18866, an easy number to remember when dialling ANY destination
[with ONE reservaton, see later]



-----------------------------------------------------------------------

*Telediscount*


Before 18866 was introduced, Telediscount was probably the best bet.
[Incidentally, aren't they the same organisation ?]


However, IMHO there are two main factors to consider -

Telediscount are a CCP - charges are based on an eleven digit non-geographic pre-fix combined with a destination routing code -

therefore to dial my Daughter in the States:

0845 351 00 35 plus 001 570 388 6***, total 24 digits.

Charged at 1p/min [inc VAT] BUT ONLY during cheap rate/off peak BT.

M - F, 8am / 6pm is charged at standard BT non-geographic local rate. [3.95p/min ?]


For Dave [OldBoy], his call to Turkey at 10p/min, same as 18866.

But he would have to dial: 0871 277 00 03 routing, plus 13 digit destination number.



Telediscount - To call any other Country involves ploughing through the myriad of different access codes.

Obviously no problem if one only calls one country - but we currently call seven.


----------------------------------------------------------------------
/QUOTE:
PS. One question - who'd be crackers enough to route 0845 (local rate) and 0870 (national rate) through 18866 ? - they bump those up to 15p/miniute [/QUOTE]



Oh Dear, I have to admit that during the past seventy-odd [Very Odd] years, I have lost count of all the stupid errors that I've perpetrated -

several weeks ago I was scrubbing out all the auto-dial programming
and re-programming with 18866 pre-fix - Margaret said she wanted to check on a query with First Direct Bank, "shall I dial 18866 first?"

Being very involved with coding 18866, I replied - " yes, OK"

So she did !
--------------------------------------------------------------------

'Margaret' - Later same afternoon;

"just had a very strange conversation, as soon as I dialled 18866, a man answered and asked what number I wanted, couldn't make sense of what he was saying or who he was so I rang off and redialled - the man answered again and asked what number I wanted, told him I was dialling my Sister in London - he asked me for her name and address, I think he must be a pervert or something so I rang off quick!"

I suggested that she redialled again while I listened on the extension,
she redialled and went straight through to the same chap - it was one of the new replacements for 192 - she was dialling 118866 !


--------------------------------------------------------------------

So, MTD, unwittingly, we all make stupid errors in everyday life,
some folk more so than others!!!

How about relating some of yours - I'm willing to bet that I can probably cap most of them. All factual, No Malice, No Bullsh*te !

If anyone else cares to bare their Soul maybe we could start a new
thread [Bet our Mate Ormus will have a go]

Any ideas for a thread title / "How could I have been So Stupid ???"



So MTD, with your permission, I will start the ball rolling:


Some ten years before you were born, my daughter Gillian was 10 months old, we were staying the weekend at the family home.

Gillian looked poorly, Mother said "that child looks feverish to me"

I went upstairs and asked my sister if she had a thermometer -
"Well, Ron [her husband] has one, but you now how fussy he is, I don't think he would like anyone else to use it"

Muttered a few choice words to her [afterall she was my younger sister]
took the thermometer, saying "she's only a baby, Don't Worry, I'll sterilise it before I use it and sterilise it afterwards, then you can put it back, Ron will Never know"

Sister followed downstairs into the kitchen saying "give it to me and I will wash it under the tap"

'Me' - "that won't sterilise it properly"

The electric kettle was just steaming away nicely for Dad's cup of tea,

SOooo, removing the lid I dunked thermometer into the near boiling water, the mercury hit the ceiling, bits of glass flew everywhere,

And I never did manage to take Gillians temperature...

__________________________________________________ __________________



And there was the time when I was at a Ceremonial Business Luncheon
in Newry on the Irish border, when I....


But thats another story, another time...

__________________________________________________ ___________________


Incidentally, Dave tells me he is delighted with 18866 already.


Heck, I trust that they will not be swamped with new clients.



Regards to you all,

R de N [James]

[MTDay]

Something of interest to call-prefix (Indirect network) users....

Just got a set Of Binatone E3250 DECT phones, and these have (not sure if it's a universal DECT feature) an Indirect Network feature.

The indirect code (up to 6 digits) can be programmed.
It will NOT be sent for Local numbers (not starting with zero)
It WILL be sent if the number starts with zero, except for two additional codes of up to 6 digits which it will not be used for).

eg. on 18866, you'd use this to set "08" as one exclusion, and anything else they happen to be poor for as another.
With this system, if you DID want to route a local call indirectly, you'd have to dial the code as well.



PS. When did the local (evening) rate change?

[oldboy2000]

Had 3 calls on this 18866 last night......nearly 13 minutes to USA and it was his mobile phone! also two fairly lengthy calls to Scotland.....now the Total Cost was......wait for it !!!......26p ...YES twenty six pence inc VAT !!

Apart from my calls to Turkey (10p min.) they will all be 1p a minute ....local, national and International.

Love the way it tells you the cost per min before it connects you !

:) :D :) :D :) :D

[R de N]

Quote from MTD:
PS. When did the local (evening) rate change?
Unquote.


Sorry MTD, not sure what you mean - my brain must be tired - can you elucidate please.



Noted that you are well into computers, perhaps you can answer a question for me, please ?

It has always puzzled me when downloading any file, update, program,
etc. The download starts off at say 8kb/sec and then proceeds to steadily drop usually down to 3kb or even 2 occasionally - never ever rises back up, no matter how long the download takes.

James

[Nick]

It starts downloading as soon as you click the link so by the time you click the save button it has already downloaded a bit of the file and it displays the speed taking this into account.

[R de N]

Originally posted by Nick
It starts downloading as soon as you click the link so by the time you click the save button it has already downloaded a bit of the file and it displays the speed taking this into account.


Nick, thanks for reply.

Still trying to get this straight in my braincells - are you saying that the actual download speed is a descending constant and therefore overall is the lowest figure recorded ?

I suppose I could check it out by division of the total file size
v. the elapsed time.

Regards, James

[Nick]

No.
As soon as you click the link it starts downloading at say 4kbps.

When you click the save button and designate a place to save the file it has already been downloading in the background for however long it took you to get round to doing the above.

The download speed displayed is an average taken from the moment you click the ok button after designating a place to store the file.
Therefore it starts very high and then the longer the download goes on the closer the figure gets to the actual figure.

The whole download is at 4kbps but the sneaky pre download affects the average speed displayed.

[R de N]

Sir, I thank you for that very lucid explanation - have asked this question many times over the years, today is the first time I have received an authoritive answer.

Have just checked out your premise against several recent download times and file sizes:

eg. SpamNetOE_BETA.exe: 2.38MB / took 9min 22secs. /

Apparent D/L speed started 8.5KB/sec. terminated at 4.25KB/sec

Bingo ! Your premise proved out...


R de N [James]

[Nick]

I'm slightly worried that you thought my answer was lucid :lol

[R de N]

Well, if you were of the 'other persuasion' I would probably address you as Lucinda in future :)

[MTDay]

Absolutely correct.... while Internet Explorer is waiting for you to tell it what to do with the file, it's pulling it into cache - a trick which most "download accelerators" miss out on (I use Metaproducts Download Express, which like most, only connects when you choose to save the file). If you want an even more impressive figure, give it (IE) long enough to almost complete the download, and be ready to grab a screenshot to show how amazingly fast your connection is.

On the other qustion, I thought local rates were 1.5p/min evening, but a lot of places where they use 0845 say it's 1p/min - which used to be only the weekend rate.

[R de N]

[Quote by R de N]
Charged at 1p/min [inc VAT] BUT ONLY during cheap rate/off peak BT.
[Unquote]


[Quote by MTD] PS. When did the local (evening) rate change?



OK, MTD - Now I understand the query.

I took the 1p/min from your link to:


---------------www.telediscount.co.uk/accessnumbers.php#T-----------



*/** BT charges to 0845 local rate and 0870 national rate numbers:

* Local rate: Sa-Su: 1p/min
Mo-Fr 6pm/8am: 1p/min
Mo-Fr 8am/6pm: 3.95p/min


** National rate: Sa-Su: 1.50p/min
Mo-Fr 6pm/8am: 3.95p/min
Mo-Fr 8am/6pm: 7.91p/min

---------All listed rates are based on BT call charges.---------------



Didn't BT charge rates change a couple of months ago, about the same period that the 192 fiasco transpired.
I must confess that since using SkyTalk 140, OneTel, SuperLine, Tiscali 1615 and now 18866, have not followed BT pricing changes.



Regarding your suggestion:

"If you want an even more impressive figure, give it (IE) long enough to almost complete the download, and be ready to grab a screenshot to show how amazingly fast your connection is."




Will most certainly do so !

Regards, James

[fieldmouse]

I have signed up for 18866 after following this thread.
Yesterdy was fine but today I have had a German (I think ) lady telling me something in her language or an English lady telling me I've dialled a wrong number or I just get put straight through with no indication of the price /min.
Has anyone else had problems like these?

[oldboy2000]

No problems so far today....will be calling USA & Scotland later...will advise if any problems.

[R de N]

Hi Gill and Dave,

Just tried dialling my London 0208 504 ... number

similar results Gill, English voice "London code numbers have changed"

second time, think it was Dutch "preis of call is 1...pro minuten,
plus another long sentence which was unintelligible [to me !]

third time tried our Niece in Cheltenham, Dutch message but the ringing tone was BT - Christine answered OK.

fourth time to London, English "1p per minute" and straight through to my ansaphone.

So, I'm guessing that '18866' is extending it's service to Europe
and there is a glitch on setting up the Dutch service.

However, if you've dialled the correct number all should be well.

Don't have any explanation for "the London code numbers have changed"
perhaps I had misdialled.

Regards, James

[oldboy2000]

Just phoned USA and got the German Voice saying 1p min and it then connected to the Yanky number ok......next a call to Scotland and it was the English voice .....will check my bill later ....

[oldboy2000]

Since joining yesterday I have made 7 calls...

2 International to USA..20 mins.
4 UK National to Scotland 18 Mins.
1 Local Call....3 mins.

Total Cost so far is £0.48

Now that's what I call cheap phone calls...:)

[oldboy2000]

Been having a little trouble over the weekend with 18866....

I dial the number and it tells me the number I am calling from is not registered!! Dial it again (sometimes twice more) and it connects me ok....

Anybody else experiencing this trouble?