I have a personal number 0701***. The last successful call to this number using 1899 was on 16/3/06. Since that time I have been unable to dial the number on any of the above services. I get the error message "The number you are trying to dial is not a normal fixed line or mobile number but a special tariff we do not offer". This is despite personal numbers being offered at all three websites.
Anybody else suffering the same problem?

Part of 070 1XXX is charged at pn2. This is charged at 50p per minute at all times from a BT residential line.
Perhaps the volume of traffic to such a "service" does not warrant connection on the part of Finarea companies.

Tanllan wrote on Apr 4^th, 2006 at 9:40am:

Part of 070 1XXX is charged at pn2. This is charged at 50p per minute at all times from a BT residential line. Perhaps the volume of traffic to such a "service" does not warrant connection on the part of Finarea companies.

But that doesn't excuse them withdrawing the service without notice while still listing it on their websites - altho' we know that Finarea are notorious for making changes and increasing charges without notice!

brainbox wrote on Apr 4^th, 2006 at 8:34am:

I have a personal number 0701***.

Excuse me for asking but why would you have such a number? ;) :-?

I wonder if you perhaps have a friend who owns a PNS company and by calling at 15p per minute were then getting say 22p per minute back in your own pocket for calling it. ::)

I always knew that Finarea offering a flat rate of 15p per minute to all PNS numbers couldn't last when this was way above the cost price of calling these numbers.  It seems odd that they can't manage to offer a different rate to each PNS code and then add whatever standard markup they need to make a profit.

wrote on Apr 4^th, 2006 at 8:31pm:

Excuse me for asking but why would you have such a number? ;) :-?

I have a personal number to allow me change my contract, to the best deal around, on an annual basis, without having to get all my contacts to update my number. I would number port but as I understand it service providers will not port to new contact with themselves (i.e. you are forced to change service provider). If there is a better way to keep the same “public” phone number while changing underlying number I would be very grateful to know about it.

brainbox wrote on Apr 6^th, 2006 at 9:26am:

I have a personal number to allow me change my contract, to the best deal around, on an annual basis, without having to get all my contacts to update my number. I would number port but as I understand it service providers will not port to new contact with themselves (i.e. you are forced to change service provider). If there is a better way to keep the same “public” phone number while changing underlying number I would be very grateful to know about it.

There are far cheaper PNS's around for redirecting to mobiles or you could get a geographic Voip number from www.sipgate.co.uk and pay yourself for that to be redirected to your mobile when required.

I am surprised anyone is prepared to call you at 50p per minute!

wrote on Apr 6^th, 2006 at 10:12am:

brainbox wrote on Apr 6th, 2006 at 9:26am: If there is a better way to keep the same “public” phone number while changing underlying number I would be very grateful to know about it. There are far cheaper PNS's around for redirecting to mobiles

Dare I suggest it: surely a free 0845 (or even 0870) number be cheaper for your callers than an 0701 number?  :-[

[quote author=trevord link=1144139641/0#6 date=1144321279]Dare I suggest it: surely a free 0845 (or even 0870) number be cheaper for your callers than an 0701 number?  :-[/quote]

I don't think there are any 0845s available that will redirect to any uk mobile phone free of charge?  I'm not sure about 0870s.  I do know that the PNS d rate will redirect to uk mobiles (but not foreign mobiles for which k rate PNS is needed) and is a lot cheaper than 50p per minute.

wrote on Apr 6^th, 2006 at 12:03pm:

[quote author=trevord link=1144139641/0#6 date=1144321279]Dare I suggest it: surely a free 0845 (or even 0870) number be cheaper for your callers than an 0701 number?  :-[/quote] I don't think there are any 0845s available that will redirect to any uk mobile phone free of charge?  I'm not sure about 0870s.

Yes, I didn't think about the cost of the redirection - only the cost to the caller.   :-[

[quote author=trevord link=1144139641/0#8 date=1144327441]Yes, I didn't think about the cost of the redirection - only the cost to the caller.   :-[/quote]

Brainbox seeks not to pay the cost of forwarding to a mobile himself but to get his caller to pay the redirection cost instead.  Hence him using PNS.

However with mobile number porting readily available I can't for the life of me see why he needs an 07 PNS number and can't simply Port his mobile number from one mobile provider to the next when he finds a better deal?  Using a k rate PNS for a Liechtenstein mobile number if I am abroad does seem possiby a legitimate thing to do as its very hard to persuade people that calling a Liechtenstein mobile using a dial through service like www.ratebuster.co.uk is either an easy or relatively cheap thing to do.  However with my new Sipura SPA 3000 I should be able to get the Voip box to do the redialling using Ratebuster instead.  Plus I would pick up the 7p per minute forwarding cost.

wrote on Apr 6^th, 2006 at 12:52pm:

However with mobile number porting readily available I can't for the life of me see why he needs an 07 PNS number and can't simply Port his mobile number from one mobile provider to the next when he finds a better deal? ...

But, as Brainbox says, porting only works between network providers. Remaining on the same network, taking out a new contract and keeping one's number doesn't seem to be encouraged by the providers. The best you can do it port the number to a PAYG SIM on another network and then port back to a new contract on the original network.

Dave wrote on Apr 6^th, 2006 at 1:15pm:

But, as Brainbox says, porting only works between network providers. Remaining on the same network, taking out a new contract and keeping one's number doesn't seem to be encouraged by the providers. The best you can do it port the number to a PAYG SIM on another network and then port back to a new contract on the original network.

Surely he could Port his number out to the network with the next best deal after staying with his own network after ending the contract with them and starting a new one on another number?

It seems that Brainbox's getting the very cheapest mobile line rental and outgoing call prices comes at a fearfully high price for those who need to call him!

Or as I suggested before he could get a Voip number with Sipgate and he could pay the mobile forwarding cost when he was unable to be logged into Sipgate on a broadband connection.

It seems that brainbox may not be so brainy after all? ;)

wrote on Apr 6^th, 2006 at 1:27pm:

It seems that Brainbox's getting the very cheapest mobile line rental and outgoing call prices comes at a fearfully high price for those who need to call him!

And does he tell them the call cost???
I would certainly have to be desperate to call him at that rate!!!  :o :o :o
(Does he work for Patientline???  :D)

Here's how I currently get around that problem. It is necessary to understand my phones are for business, with social calls as an extra. It's my firm and so therefore my bills.........

1 - I have a normal BT landline. Advertised number
2 - A box, explained on their site, purchased from Burnside Telecom (www.burnsidetelecom.co.uk) £300
3 - An 0800 number from Dolphin Communications (www.call08.com) £5 + vat monthly  Advertised number
4 - A 12 month contract O2 phone from www.phones2udirect.co.uk. This is a Free Line Rental contract, subject to conditions.
5 - My contract Orange that is the target phone.  Advertised number

Here goes.........

The customer can ring the 0800, which is sent to the BT phone. I get 800 mins per month inc for my £5.85. Then any extra at 2p per min any time of day.
The Burnside box has the 12 month Free line rental chip in it. This box sits between the wall connection and the landphone.
The 12 month chip has 200 inc mins + 100 inc texts monthly, BUT doubled for the first 3 months.
The box, when set up correctly, diverts the call to my mobile (or any other phone), using the inc mins.

You have to bear in mind BT call divert is about 19p per min + a monthly service fee of about £3.

So........
Assuming I use the inc mins correctly (and get another contract when I start to exceed those mins)

Year 1
Box        = £300.00              (I can even change the divert target by text whilst out on the road)
0800      = £  70.20
Bt line    = £126.00
Inc mins = FREE

So 9600 mins per year, 800 * 12months (160 hrs, 6.6.... whole days) diverted to the mobile £496.20. ALL TAX DEDUCTABLE
Sell the phone for about £40 (anyone want a Motorola V220?) cash in pocket.

The BT route would cost 9600*0.19= £1824 + line rental £126 + service charges of £36. Total £1986
At the end of the 12 months, I'd have no phones to sell, no magic box, and the prospect of the same cost, at least, next year.
I know that's tax deductable also, but look at the money I would get to keep for myself, even after paying tax on the difference.

So customer has the option of 0800 free from landline
or mobile number, using thei inc mins
or the Bt number if they didn't get the others.

I don't miss a customer, and hopefully gain more by using the 0800.

Oh yes. And using the landphone, dialing a mobile goes out via the box using the inclusive mins, so that call is free.
I can text using the landphone, or usb the box to the computer to write the text. This then also goes out via the box. Free.
I can ring the mobile chip in the box, and after it's been programmed, it will go out via the landline. Not sure why I would want that, but I'll figure a way to use it to an advantage.

Did I make that sound easy? It works for me anyway

Extra info
I use Voipstunt (www.voipstunt.com) to make all my landline and international land calls from home. Approx £8.12 for 4 months, or £2.03 monthly for unlimted calls to about 50 countries, of which at the end of the 4 months, I can have a 48 minute chat to the bird in Hungary on her mobile, just to use the credit.
I use the various 1899, 18185 etc to dial the 08** numbers
Is there anything I've missed to get my calls any cheaper? If so, please tell me.

Just a word of warning that 18185 is now charging 10p per minute to call Tmobile numbers in the Weekday daytime even though the 18185 website claims its 5p per minute to all mobile phones.  Calling my Vodafone still brings up an announcement that the cost is 5p per minute though compared to the 10p per minute announcement for Tmobile. :-? :-/ :o

NGM
Why would you even think about 18185, or any others, when you have the option of Phonecheap etc to choose from?
Starting at 3p per min, compared to your 5p, you would be saving at least 40% of your costs. In comparison to the 10p you would be saving about 70%.

a very nice man wrote on May 12^th, 2006 at 3:21pm:

NGM Why would you even think about 18185, or any others, when you have the option of Phonecheap etc to choose from? Starting at 3p per min, compared to your 5p, you would be saving at least 40% of your costs. In comparison to the 10p you would be saving about 70%.

Because with 18185 I don't pay if the call is not answered and I don't pay for non connection etc due to unreliable technology etc.  Also I have to remember the PhoneCheap number and the deal will only last for another 2 or 3 weeks before it goes back to 10p per minute.

At least 18185 is consistently cheap for mobiles plus also you get call itemisation which you do not get with these other services.  Plus of course the PostOffice HomePhone tries to stop me calling the PhoneCheap number directly by playing unobtainable and only if I add the 1280 prefix do I get through to PhoneCheap at all at a price unknown till I get my first HomePhone phone bill.

Personally, I'm totally fed up with Phonecheap.  In the last while it seems that whenever I use it, the 0844 number for calling mobiles has changed and so you need to redial, having wasted the connection charge.
Tonight I had to dial a changed number (the price had gone up to 3p min) - why cannot the announcement just be changed?  Unable to remember all these different 0844 nos anyway, so will give up!.

firestop wrote on May 12^th, 2006 at 6:45pm:

Tonight I had to dial a changed number (the price had gone up to 3p min) - why cannot the announcement just be changed?  Unable to remember all these different 0844 nos anyway, so will give up!.

Because different 0844 number ranges are banded at different price levels.  You have to change the 0844 number to charge a different price for the sae service from day to day.  18185 can change the price without changing the prefix dialled although they rarely change the price as it happens.

My experience of Dialthrough number is that unless they are much cheaper than 1899/18185 (as is often the case for Spanish mobiles where Dialaround can be charging 7p per minute and 1899/18185 20p per minute) and you know you are going to be making a long call they don't save you anything because of all the wasted connection charge fees, including occasions when the number called is not available.  Plus also the lack of subsequent itemisation of where you called as well.

So hence why I prefer 18185 unless a Dialthrough is much cheaper.  18185 is cheapest all ways round for unavoidable 0870s of course.

I have been using 1899/18185 for about three months now with no problems, last night I tried to call several numbers after the first failed as a test using 1899 and 18185 neither worked, I then tried the numbers the normal BT way it worked.

I pay BT for basic line rental and use 1899/18185 for all my calls.

I would dial the full number which most are all set up my landline phones memory on speed dial the number would dial the the call timer would start no ring tone, no "0p per minute announcement" and it would go quite.

We called the people we were trying to contact via BT without 1899/18185 in front and asked them if the phone rung then stopped a few times, they said NO ? I have logged this with 1899/18185 through the fault reports.

Any one else get any issues last night.

thanks

Jay

jaydog wrote on May 15^th, 2006 at 12:11pm:

Any one else get any issues last night. thanks Jay

I wasn't at home so didn't make any calls with them yesterday but such occasional temporary faults with Finarea's various indirect access call services have happened before in the past.

As they only have very limited manpower it usually does take a day or two for such problems to get fixed on those occasions when they happen.

I have been getting a lot more problem with call echo (my own voice echoing back at me) on some calls with Finarea indirect access services in recent months so it does seem like the quality of their service is currently deteriorating.  As they fail to belong to one of Ofcom's Alternate Dispute Resultion Schemes (ADRs) and ignore complaints filed on their website (they send a standard email that just says that most problems usually go away in time) there is nothng more that one can do about this.

I also had a problem with 1899 & 18185 last night.  Nothing was working.

Don't know whether or not it's working today but I've just checked my account and 1899 was working later last night.  I've had no recent calls on 18185.

Hi Kiwi, look at my post - 'Is Onetel blocking 1899/18866/18185?'
Seems like your and my problems are identical, but mine has not gone away.  Are you still having problems?  Have you had any response from 1899 or 18185?