Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the forum and would like assistance finding an alternative geographic number for 0844 535 2133.
The company is FreeRangeDial (www.freerangedial.co.uk).

Any help would be gratefully received.

Domain name:
       freerangedial.co.uk

   Registrant:
       pulse8design Ltd

   Registrant type:
       Not supplied

   Registrant's address:
       Waterside
       The Plains
       Totnes
       Devon
       TQ9 5DW
       GB

tel 01803 864 545

This is a number for a dial-up ISP. This is one of the few legitimate uses of revenue sharing, in my opinion. How do you expect the ISP to pay for their connection to the internet? (Whether they should be using 08 or 09 numbers for revenue sharing is another matter).

The interesting thing is their claim:


Quote:

The Internet access service provided by freerange ISP is a free-to-subscribe ISP service for the UK. No set-up is involved and the service in anonymous. Because our internet access number is an 0844 number all you pay is the cost of local phone call - just 1 pence a minute at weekends and weekday evenings and under 4 pence per minute during the day

The number (0844 535 xxxx) is charged at 3.95p/min daytime, 1p/min evening and weekend from BT lines. Compare this to an 0845 number: 3p/1p. Plus you can add 0845 numbers to "Friends and Family" to get up to 20% off (which is what I used to do when on dial-up). I think it's highly unlikely this ISP is cheaper than one of the many others using 0845.

This is a new twist on the "local rate" misadvertising. Not only is an 0844 number not the same price as a call to a local geographical number, is isn't even the same price as the 0845 former local rate number! As far as I know, 0844 has never been local rate.

jrawle wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2005 at 5:38pm:

This is a number for a dial-up ISP. This is one of the few legitimate uses of revenue sharing, in my opinion. How do you expect the ISP to pay for their connection to the internet? (Whether they should be using 08 or 09 numbers for revenue sharing is another matter).

Completely agree.


jrawle wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2005 at 5:38pm:

The number (0844 535 xxxx) is charged at 3.95p/min daytime, 1p/min evening and weekend from BT lines. Compare this to an 0845 number: 3p/1p. Plus you can add 0845 numbers to "Friends and Family" to get up to 20% off (which is what I used to do when on dial-up). I think it's highly unlikely this ISP is cheaper than one of the many others using 0845.

It is slightly more expensive than 0845 ISPs, being that it costs 3.95p/min in the daytime (Mon-Fri, 06:00-18:00) rather than 3p/min. Evening and weekend rates are the same. Oh, and you can't add it to Friends and Family or any other discount scheme. These rates apply to BT landlines, as they say, "Other providers may vary".


jrawle wrote on Dec 22^nd, 2005 at 5:38pm:

This is a new twist on the "local rate" misadvertising. Not only is an 0844 number not the same price as a call to a local geographical number, is isn't even the same price as the 0845 former local rate number! As far as I know, 0844 has never been local rate.

The point is that on a BT 'non-discounted' tariffs are, in reality the only ones that the 'local rate' connection exists on, and this is infact correct (for those tariffs).

However, most people are on 'discounted' [BT] tariffs. Refer to the list of 08xx prefixes and you will see that 0844 535 is 5 under Categorisation for Customer Options. On clicking the (b) at the top of that column, it reveals that 5 is 'No discount'.

Providers on 0844 numbers can decide whether to opt in or out of BT's 'discounting' schemes/tariffs, as such discounts mean that they receive less revenue. That explains why you can put some 0844 numbers into F&F and not others.