Sorry about this posting which is nothing to do with 0870/0845 numbers but I know that there are telecoms experts who look at this site who might have an idea about my problem.

I have a BT wifi system including BT Broadband Talk (yes, I know that there might be cheaper options on the market).  This means that most of my outgoing calls are made from an 05600 number.

I’m finding that around 5% of my calls drop for no reason.  There is also another quirk.  If I telephone 2 particular numbers, after the required number or rings, the answer phone cuts in, I hear their outgoing message but as soon as I try to leave a message, I’m thanked for leaving the message.  If I then re-dial using the same (cordless) phone but dialling 5 to use the BT landline and then using 18185, I get the answer phone message and then I’m able to leave my message.

Prior to having this system, I had an Orchid Dialler and had no problems.  This is still operative and I use it occationally.

If anyone has any ideas, I would be very interested.

Contacting BT faults is very difficult.  One speaks to one person (with a very strong accent), confirms the identity (name, first line of address and post code). The call is then passed to another person (same security questions again).  Last week I spent around 1 hour speaking to various people, answered the security questions at least 6 times and had to change to another phone as the battery went flat.  The only redeeming feature is that calls to the fault line are free.

I hope that you won’t be too unkind to me in posting this unusual request.

I fear that the answer may be to move from BT broadband (or "UK slow-rate narrowband" as it is known on the continent). Then you can also use a normal 'phone number or a normal soft number, rather than 056, which attracts higher call costs for anyone calling you.
Well done BT, well done Ofcom - must protect those profits.

Tanllan wrote on May 1^st, 2007 at 12:14pm:

I fear that the answer may be to move from BT broadband (or "UK slow-rate narrowband" as it is known on the continent). Then you can also use a normal 'phone number or a normal soft number, rather than 056, which attracts higher call costs for anyone calling you. Well done BT, well done Ofcom - must protect those profits.

I was under the impression that BT Broadband Talk (part of "BT Total Broadband") gives you a geographical number with the same code as your landline.

It can do either. However Im told the 05 numbers are inculded in Bts inclusive call packages. Cant say for any other provider mind, but I would assume so.

Just found out that BT have discovered that there is an issue with their BT Broadband Talk service (VOIP) in that there are instances when it is not possible to leave messages on answer phones or voice-mails when calling from a Broadband Talk line.  It seems that it is nothing to do with their router but is a problem with their system.

They say that they are investigating it but don’t have a solution yet.

Perhaps they should ask some of the other telecoms who offer VOIP services

You think that's good - their BT Business Broadband Voice is even worse! If you're registered on their system as using one piece of kit (like one of the older modems they supplied) if you attempt to use your own VoIP kit through your own gateway, quite often you only get half-duplex communication! There's something up with the way BT's hardware handshakes with the VoIP kit; when I set up a VoIP kit at a local business I found that if I rang people they could hear me but I couldn't hear them. I had to ring the BT BBV helpline and tell them the exact model number of the VoIP gateway hardware I was using in order for them to make a config change on their end to make it work properly.

The reason I didn't cotton on to this earlier was because the router was actually handshaking and registering (apparently) correctly with BT's SIP gateway, which was a real pain because I couldn't figure out what the hell was up until I rang and explained the problem (and got an "ohhhhh I know what the problem is" from the CSR). Also, If you try to use the site listed on their documentation to configure your account, it doesn't work properly with your web browser - you type in your IP phone number (0560x xxxxxx) and password and it opens the next page on the site, then you click Next and it opens a popup... And shows a "system error, please try later" message! This'll happen every time if you left click, you have to RIGHT click on the Next button and open in a new window for it to work... Nice going BT! And THEN, if you aren't using your IP kit through a godforsaken HomeHub (the kit I was setting up was all Linksysco (Cisco branded as Linksys as I call them now)) you have to extract the correct config details from the URL string passed to the browser by the web site to input into your equipment to make it register with BT's SIP gateway correctly!

Oh, and the password they give you on the piece of paper... Utterly useless, because the BBV web site actually rehashes the password and the SIP gateway only accepts THAT version... And it passes not just one but TWO (different) proxy servers through the browser string which the HomeHub is configured with, but which there's no other way of viewing unless you dissect the URL string to find out what they are. Very nice job there!


The call drops on BT Broadband Voice just sound either like problems with your line or due to congestion in general on the network, and it's something I wouldn't be surprised at at all given BT's oversubscription of their residential broadband network. It really annoys me that you HAVE to have a BT broadband line to receive anything like an IP service or their new TV service, how utterly pointless is that. They'd make far more if they resold their services and just routed them all over their IPStream networks (which just about every UK ISP uses for backhaul anyway, which is why most UK ISPs have ludicrously low bandwidth caps due to the high price of wholesale bandwidth!) grrrrr BT make me so angry  [smiley=angry.gif]

Oh, AND... On my old O2 contract I could call 0560 numbers fine, just like regular numbers. However, on T-Mobile I just get "you have dialed an invalid number, please check and try again." Calls to TM's customer services reveal that they have absolutely no idea why you can't call them, and they suggest you ring BT (and give you a number for BT... Which goes straight through to the automated number for BT Directories (the phone book, instructions for getting inclusion in the business pages etc!) How useful.

First problem I've had with TM though since I signed up last year, so on the scale of things it's not so huge - but a bit of problem considering my employer next year will be using their 0560 number to receive calls! Oddly I can receive calls made FROM the 0560 number to my mobile though, which means the routing is at least half ok. Could be something to do with BT's misconfiguration at their end which might work now, but still... What a hassle for something which should be so simple!