BT BB & Total Talk national calls

fifib

Have the BT package - BB & Total Talk and told all local, national and UK landline calls are free.
Ive made a few national calls last month but was charged for them. BT say its cos they were not UK ones or something like that i didnt fully understand the guy. Anyways just wondering what national calls come under this package for being free cos im very confused.

Thansk

Sponge Bob

Ireland

Landlines , not 18n 15n 0818n but 01 02 etc ( not 076)

UK Landlines

all numbers beginning 441 442 ONLY

fifib

ok i thought 0818 were national calls?
never heard of a national number beginning in 441 or 442

ardmacha

Numbers in a particular place are free, typically. One with a number that costs the same everywhere are not free, typically, except for freephone numbers. Similarly with UK numbers 01*** 02* (+441, +442) numbers are geographic and free.

cyburger

they might be what are called non-geo(graphical) numbers, they're charged at local rates in the UK, but they're not local numbers, same as "lo-call" numbers here.

Cabaal

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Ireland

Landlines , not 18n 15n 0818n but 01 02 etc ( not 076)

UK Landlines

all numbers beginning 441 442 ONLY

Feck sake, I know there not popular but you'd think they'd atleast cover 076 considering its classed as a local call in Ireland

watty

it's very unlikely a real landline is 076.
VOIP on DSL doens't count as a landline.

Cabaal

watty wrote: »

it's very unlikely a real landline is 076.
VOIP on DSL doens't count as a landline.

How about VoIP on cable? :pac:

No seriously, for the sake of it you'd think they'd give 076 as free as they are charged as local call rate when calling them on normal eircom landlines, I know their not actually landlines but it wouldn't kill them

watty

Most landlines the termination charge is eircom. 076 nearly anyone could be terminating the calls and charging wildly different amounts.

One solution is to have 3 fixed universal termination charges for whole of EU:
1) POTS / ISDN
2) Mobile
3) VOIP

Ofcom and EU are looking at the issues of termination charges. In the US they have a system we DO NOT want, the called party is charged the termination charge. Thus your landline and especially mobile credit/bill can be used up by cold call selling and other people phoning you.

3 in UK think they ought to be allowed to charge more than the others Termination charges in many cases are not related to costs. Esp among non-landline.

Also some VOIP and other operators can charge 3 different rates: Your normal VOIP is destination, your call is diverted to Mobile, your call is diverted to Landline. Other operators don't like this as there are then numbers where they don't know the termination charge before connection! Thus another major valid reason for 076 exclusion, the calling party can be connected to a Mobile!

Also some operators have fixed VOIP and true mobile VOIP. Those usually have different numbers (Geographic and possibly 076 or other non-Geo) and different termination charges.

watty

Cabaal wrote: »

How about VoIP on cable? :pac:

Quality QOS managed VOIP provided by the ISP (Fixed Wireless, Cable, Metro, LLU DSL but not Bitstream DSL) can be nearly identical quality and features to a landline and usually is NOT 076, but a regular geographic number.

3rd Party VOIP (the usual source of 076) can't ensure any level or quality of service. The packet loss, jitter and latency is not under the control of the VOIP supplier. These are budget services not recommend for serious business use. See earlier comments about some 3rd party VOIP operators termination charges. Skype is fine for free PC to PC communication and you can revert to landline or Mobile. The SkypeIN / SkypeOut has been proven to be a very unreliable service and is not free. Definitely not a choice for your main phone connection. The termination charges for SkypeIN to callers can vary anytime and by country.

Regular non-Skype SIP based 3rd party VOIP is much preferable, though the QOS managed VOIP by your own ISP (if they have such an integrated service) is better still.

cyburger

watty wrote: »

Quality QOS managed VOIP provided by the ISP (Fixed Wireless, Cable, Metro, LLU DSL but not Bitstream DSL) can be nearly identical quality and features to a landline and usually is NOT 076, but a regular geographic number.

That's ULMP is it?