Blueface - 2 new subscription options

causal

https://www.blueface.ie/purchase/purchase.aspx

€24.99 per month - World* Unlimited
€19.99 per month - Freedom Plus (1000 Minutes Ireland and Intl*)
€14.99 per month - Ireland/UK** Unlimited
€9.99 per month - Freedom Basic (300 Minutes Ireland and Intl*)

* To selected international destinations.
**To Irish and UK landlines. Does not include mobile or premium rate calls.

You've got to hand it to blueface - usual lightening response
We were discussing tariffs yesterday

causal

Cabaal

Its refreshing to see a company paying attention to what kind of products customers want,

Good stuff...

[EDIT] I see they've also now fully updated their website..much better overview of costs and whats available to customers.

paulm17781

Due to Aaron being the nicest guy in the telecoms business (in Ireland anyway) I have lots of free calls built up. I think the unlimited option is where I will go once I run out.

Cheers Aaron

causal

I've tried to work out roughly which price plan is optimal for a given usage - using an average call cost of €0.02 per minute.
It's a bit difficult to consider every possiblilty. When choosing a plan - you have to compare it to the plan 'above' and 'below'; and then there's the Irl/UK versus international aspect to consider.
So, I've tried to keep this reasonably simple by suggesting which plan to go for comparing each plan with the next plan up.

Pay-as-you-go (notwithstanding features unavailble like 01/076 number etc.)
- if your call usage is less than €9.99 / 500 minutes

Fredom Basic
- if your call usage is less than €14.99 / 550 minutes (300 'free' + 250 paid)

Irl/UK Umlimited
- if your call usage is higher than €14.99 / 550 minutes (300 'free' + 250 paid) within Irl/UK

<choice between these two plans depends on your Irl/UK vs International usage>

Freedom Plus
- if your call usage is less than €24.99 / 1250 minutes (1000 'free' + 250 paid)

World Unlimited
- if your call usage is higher than €24.99 / 1250 minutes (1000 'free' + 250 paid)

Like I said it's not a complete or definitive analysis for every scenario, it's merely a rough guide,
ttbomk the figures etc. are right, but please point out any errors or omissions.

causal

causal

I should also point out that the Freedom Basic plan has been improved with 300 free minutes (was 100 minutes)

That puts the blueface 9.99 plan ahead of the skytel.ie 9.99 plan which only has 250 minutes.

causal

fisab

Incredible proactive response by blueface - some really good options there - the unlimited Ireland/UK option seems to really suit me. And the basic package has got very competitive too.

vibe666

nice one. now if only i could get my broadband upgraded to make it worthwhile!

air

vibe666 wrote:

nice one. now if only i could get my broadband upgraded to make it worthwhile!

Exactly, I'll be taking up at least 2 concurrent blueface plans as soon as I'm sure my bandwidth will support 2 concurrent calls.

I think the next killer app that blueface should go for is electronic faxing.
With the phone number portability that they have already got going it would be excellent if one could transfer faxing services to them (much like efax et al) and send / receive faxes through the web also.
Just wondering though, given that our broadband is on the fax line, would eircom allow me to transfer the number away & keep dsl on the line?

causal

air wrote:

Just wondering though, given that our broadband is on the fax line, would eircom allow me to transfer the number away & keep dsl on the line?

Yes but I'm sure they'll charge you line rental on your 'new' DSL line i.e. if you port the fax number - then they'll have to put your DSL on a new number. Do you have any other broadband options - Smart, ntl, IBB, Digisoft?

Also, have a peek at Eircom disconnection procedure from the 4th post down.

hth,
causal

PlasmaFish

Looks good, I know I’m going to move to the €14.99 option,

I would love to know when is this going to hit the press that VoIP is going to go under serious completion with eircom. I can't wait untill the Sh*" hits the fan for eircom.

Cabaal

PlasmaFish wrote:

I would love to know when is this going to hit the press that VoIP is going to go under serious completion with eircom. I can't wait untill the Sh*" hits the fan for eircom.

Funny you say that
coming from http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/news.nv?storyid=single4841

While all the speakers agreed that VoIP was going to shape the future of telecoms, Seán Loughnan, head of innovation at Eircom, laughed off speculation that the incumbent’s survival will be under threat. “Many’s the time that Eircom’s demise has been forecast,” Loughnan said wryly. “The fact is we are already selling VoIP services. We have 25 corporate customers using it across a managed IP network. For smaller companies we offer IP voice services with all the features of a PBX (private branch exchange). In the months ahead we are going to be offering consumer VoIP services on top of DSL,” Loughan added.

causal

I see the blueface AUP has been updated to show that the new unlimited plans are for residential customers only.

# Unlimited residential plans are for residential use only. Blue Face reserves the right to immediately cancel any service where it is deemed that the unlimited plan is not being used as a normal residential connection.
# Blue Face reserves the right to determine at its sole discretion what constitutes normal residential usage.

tbh it's understandable. Imagine the traffic from a call centre, telemarketing centre, etc.
The only other option would be to impose a limit so the service doesn't get abused by businesses - but then it isn't unlimited - and we've seen the flack ISPs get for saying a service is unlimited but then capping it.

So imho (and as a residential customer) I think blueface made the sensible move to make unlimited plans for residential customers only - because realistically - the only other option is not to have unlimited plans.

causal

TimTim

Unfournatly that article is right about eircom and their VoIP services, the company my dad works for has switched over to VoIP already and intergrated their voice and data networks into one. All over eircom's service.

PlasmaFish

Within the next few months we are going to see a wireless provider offering all-in-one solution for broadband and VoIP phone service for as little as €36/m
To go into competition with eircom!

It's only time before we see the Sh** hit the fan for eircom!!!

Cabaal

PlasmaFish wrote:

Within the next few months we are going to see a wireless provider offering all-in-one solution for broadband and VoIP phone service for as little as €36/m
To go into competition with eircom!

This wouldn't happen to be Digiweb who have pegged their roleout for Q3 of 2005

causal

causal wrote:

I see the blueface AUP has been updated to show that the new unlimited plans are for residential customers only.

So it's curious that the Irish Independent run this story and describes the two new (residential only) products:

The Irish Independent notes that internet telephony firm Blueface has launched a range of VoIP products targeting the business and consumer markets. Its "Ireland/UK unlimited" product provides unlimited calls to fixed lines in Ireland and the UK for EUR14.99 per month, while its "freedom world" package provides unlimited calls in Ireland, the UK, a number of EU countries, North America, Australia and New Zealand for EUR24.99 per month.

causal