LAND LINE NEWS

DIRECTORY INQUIRIES??

192 has finally gone, but apparently 20% of people are still calling it only to receive a recorded message. Meanwhile Conduit have laid off a 100 operators to their 11 88 88 service as some of them are only getting a call every fifteen minutes, they have also added a 25p connection charge to their 20p per minute rate. With so many new 118 services available, some of them are bound to go bust sooner rather than later, especially with the amount of advertising they are paying out for in the papers and on the television. More soon

BT are pushing their new 'Together plans'. It seems that they have realised that a substantial number of domestic customers prefer to use other providers (mobile or landline) to make their calls. So, rather than get nothing they are allowing unlimited calls of various types and charging a higher monthly line rental. You can have the following monthly options which include the basic BT line rental:

OneTel have decided they can do even better and are offering unlimited calls for £4.99 (evenings and weekend) or £13.99 (anytime), without any one hour limit; you do have to pay your BT line rental as well.

BT are also still advertising their basic 1571 Answer service at the moment. This is a simplified version of their call minder service. It is a network based answering service that will answer calls when you are either away from the phone or engaged on another call. It then alerts you that there is a new message waiting in your mailbox by placing a stutter dial tone on the line. It will store up to 10 messages at any one time. If you order BT Answer 1571 by phoning 0800 003 800 or 0800 917 1571 you will be given an estimate of the maximum amount of time it will take us to provide the service. You can check whether BT Answer 1571 has been provided by dialing 1571 and listening for the BT Answer mailbox greeting. You will also receive a welcome letter that will contain all you need to know to make full use of the BT Answer 1571 service, as well as the helpdesk number if you have any further queries. The messages will be stored for 20 days, after which time they will be automatically deleted. It is not possible to store messages on a permanent basis due to capacity limitations. BT Answer 1571 is free. There are no rental charges and the messages can be retrieved free of charge.

You can of course still get their full call minder service for £6 per quarter, which allows features like remote access and personalized greetings.

INTERNET  & ADSLNEWS

The price of monthly internet access has been creeping up in recent months with both BT and Freeserve adding a pound to their unmetered rates. Meanwhile adsl rates have been coming down. AOL for instance now allow a full adsl service for £27.99.  Expect further price cuts from their competitors.

BT are still adding some exchanges to their adsl network; but customers have had to register interest with their ISPs and they have to tell BT how many customers they might sign up. When 200 people sign up on most exchanges BT will turn them on!!!

MOBILE PHONE NEWS

Orange are putting some of their prices up! On pay as you go from May 1st you have a choice of three tariffs; you can pay 20p per minute all the time, or pay 35p peak with 10p off peak, or pay 25p for the first three minutes then 5p thereafter. Text msgs go up to 12p, cross network 40p or 50p. Check our Orange page for details. They are also in the process of losing 0800 access for account customers; first to suffer are OVP Virgin account customers who no longer have freefone access from the 1st May.

There is a general move, from the major networks, to encourage cross network calls. Most customers realise that ringing an alternate network costs 35p or more on most tariffs. So the networks now have introduced tariffs that allow cross network calls to be included in the monthly minutes. However the typical cost per minute has risen substantially. Bundled minutes historically cost around 10p, but now cost nearer 15p; so if you mostly ring land lines or phones on your own network avoid these new terms.

Hutchison

Send email to questions at callforless.co.uk
Last modified: November 20, 2003

Recent Visits