First time poster from the USA here. I recently moved to the USA from the UK and I'm able to call back to geographical lines in the UK for very little cost. My sister recently started University in Bristol and has a telephone in her room in her Halls of Residence. Unfortunately it is an 0870 number, which I am unable to call from the USA, as I am unable to connect to an International premium rate number. I have used the site several times in the past for Airlines, businesses etc, which has been invaluable to me. Does anybody know of any way round this problem? I really miss talking to her and calling her mobile is way too expensive!

Thanks,

Adam

This page MAY be of some help, it has the main switch board number there. Worth a try.

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/contacting-people/

Why not ask your sister to sign up to Freewire Phone, and then you can call the 020 access number to contact her.

jgxenite wrote on Sep 29^th, 2008 at 8:18am:

Why not ask your sister to sign up to Freewire Phone, and then you can call the 020 access number to contact her.

Whilst I'm sure it's a good service, and releavant given it's being promoted by the University, there seems to be something inherantly flawed in suggesting using a VoIP service which then requires an international call to contact the person!

If the OP wants to sugest his sister goes the VoIP route, then, apart from the various software-at-both-ends options, such as Skype, MSN, etc,  there is the more sensible route of just getting a SIP account with a provider that offers free incoming and/or outgoing calls.  Most of the betamax brands, among others, offer free calls TO the USA, for instance, and i don't know about their number allocation availability in the US, but there are plenty of other providers offering local USA numbers, which the OP could no doubt call into for substantially cheaper than dialing internationally.

A SIP based service can then be used with a range of softphones or an adapter that connects a standard phone directly to a router.

I can hunt out some specific examples of services if necessary, but but shouln't be hard to find if that's the way they want to go.

The Freewire option looks great, I will suggest it to her, thanks! Is there no way of finding out the geographical number for her 0870 number? I am pretty much a novice at all this so would appreciate your expertise. Thank you in advance!

It may be possible to find the underlying geographic number, but it will take some time. The Freewire or SIP/Betamax option would be a quicker option if you are needing to contact her now.

Actually, I call back to the UK through Vonage, so it's free to call landlines. Does the Freewire allow her to recieve calls for free? She wouldn't need to call me then. How is the line quality on Freewire too?

I'm not in a huge rush to find the number, but it would be a big help in the long term. I can see my parents chalking up a huge telephone bill calling her on a premium rate number all the time. I always have email and text messages for now. How do you go about finding it?

I'm afraid I don't know anything about Freewire except for the "promotional blurb" that was on the Bristol Uni website. I assume it is free for her to receive calls, so as long as she's got the software and a headset for her computer, she should be OK to use it for free and you can use the 020 number to call her free.

Regarding the finding of the alternative number for the halls, we would need some information to further our "investigation" :).
- Is her phone connected to the University network (can she call internal University numbers for free)?
- If so, how long is her extension number? (Some browsing of the uni website reveals their extensions are mostly 5 digits long - 6 for one of them)
- How does she make outgoing calls - what is the provider? (Dog and Bone is one example - it may not be hers).

Unfortunately I have no answer to any of those three questions yet, I will have to follow up with her and let you know. All I have to go on right now is that she lives in a place called Woodland Court: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/accommodation/unires/wc.html

Thanks!

That's fine - I wasn't expecting you to know the answers right now. If you can find out though, and post back here, we'll see what we can do :).

Will do, thanks so much!

There is already a thread running for University of Bristol accommodation here.

Please let me know whether this relates to the same system, ie same block of 0870 numbers. Have a read of it and see if anything helps, in particular follow the link to the FOI response.

Her number is 08708148***. None of the posters on the thread you linked to seem to have this combination of numbers. Still waiting to see what her internal extension is. I will keep you posted. Did anyone successfully manage to crack the system first time around?

adamgoffin wrote on Sep 29^th, 2008 at 11:32am:

Did anyone successfully manage to crack the system first time around?

I will answer your final question first. If they did, then they didn't post! As you can see, myself and other members have put suggestions down to try and it's up to those who would like the alternative to try them and report back.


adamgoffin wrote on Sep 29^th, 2008 at 11:32am:

Her number is 08708148***. None of the posters on the thread you linked to seem to have this combination of numbers. Still waiting to see what her internal extension is. I will keep you posted.

This is a different number. Either they have changed numbers or it's different accommodation. If it's all the university's own accommodation, then I would have thought that all sites would have the same system.

The 0870 number may have changed because they have changed provider. We don't know whether this means that the underlying geographicals have changed or not.

0870 814 is allocated to Thus Plc, change date 03/2007

Thus has one prefix in Bristol: 0117 337 change date 04/2000

So I did a little research (I work overnight, it's actually 5am in California) and found that her Halls of Residence are in fact connected to the University system. In other words, she has a 5 digit extension and can call anywhere on campus, or any other 5 digit extension within that network free of charge. The lady at Woodland Court wasn't sure who the service provider was, she alluded to me having to call BT for that information.

As far as the THUS Plc information, how should I use that to experiment with geographical numbers?

Well, that's good to know. Well, the Thus thing just tells us that the company Thus provides that 0870 number, and that within the Bristol area code (0117), Thus has one range - 0117 337 xxxx (where xxxx is technically any number between 0000 and 9999).

The next thing to try is to find out what extension she has (51234 for example) then drop the first digit (1234) and try that appending to the end of the Thus code (so 0117 337 1234 for example). Record whether the number rings, and if it rings, whether the person that answers is in that halls or not, and also perhaps what their extension is if they are.

Let us know how you get on with that, and we can investigate further if needs be.

So I found out her 5 digit extension, which was 36***. I tried using the last 4 digits with the aforementioned telephone number. It rang twice and then went to an automated message, saying "Lines are temporarily busy, please try again later. O106". Then it repeated the same message about 4 times and disconnected. No dice. Where do we go from here? Is there any significance to the "O106"? That's letter 'O', one, zero, six.

Also, I found out that Bristol Uni uses a service called Uni-Tel, which is their alternative to FreeWire. Apparently a little bit cheaper. My sister told me the Internet she has in her halls drops in and out though, so that's bad news! Any thoughts on where to proceed with the geographical number idea?

adamgoffin wrote on Sep 30^th, 2008 at 10:04am:

Also, I found out that Bristol Uni uses a service called Uni-Tel, which is their alternative to FreeWire. Apparently a little bit cheaper. My sister told me the Internet she has in her halls drops in and out though, so that's bad news! Any thoughts on where to proceed with the geographical number idea?

Read the FOI response here.

Ok, so I have read the full FOI response. Does that mean that I am chasing a lost cause then? One thing I noticed is that in the FOI response an 0870814**** number translates to 0117307****. This number is different to the 0117337**** number that apparently corresponds to Thus PLC?

adamgoffin wrote on Sep 30^th, 2008 at 11:22am:

Ok, so I have read the full FOI response. Does that mean that I am chasing a lost cause then? One thing I noticed is that in the FOI response an 0870814**** number translates to 0117307****.

In which case, I suggest you try 0117 307, but it does say that it is "shuffled", so it may not be 0117 307 + last four digits of ext no. If you get through to one which answers, then it would be useful if you can ascertain whether it's someone in the university accommodation. It's likely that the same telephone system is used (hence the same block of numbers) across different accommodation sites, so it's not forced to be where your sister is.


adamgoffin wrote on Sep 30^th, 2008 at 11:22am:

This number is different to the 0117337**** number that apparently corresponds to Thus PLC?

I suggested 0117 337 because it is a Thus prefix just like the 0870. It does not have to be the case that the underlying geo is the same provider as the non-geo number. In the light of the FOI response, I would go with what it says.

Interesting. I tried this 0117307 with the last four of her student extension and got through to a Solicitors in Bristol! I guess that means that 0000-9999 are not exclusively owned by the University then. I read somewhere on another site that if you work in a telephone exchange office (PBX) then you can call an 0870 number and it will give you the landline alternative. True or no?

adamgoffin wrote on Sep 30^th, 2008 at 11:43am:

Interesting. I tried this 0117307 with the last four of her student extension and got through to a Solicitors in Bristol! I guess that means that 0000-9999 are not exclusively owned by the University then. I read somewhere on another site that if you work in a telephone exchange office (PBX) then you can call 0870 and it will give you the landline alternative. True or no?

In some cases I believe they may tell you the underlying number.

The number of numbers the university will have depends on how many rooms they have. Clearly it won't be anywhere near 10,000, hence the block of telephone numbers won't be 10,000 long. A guess would be a couple of thousand at the most.

I would try shifting by 1,000 and see what you get, ie, 0117 3070???, 0117 3071??? through to 0117 3079???

Make a note of what you've tried and what you've come across.

Dave wrote on Sep 30^th, 2008 at 11:51am:

I would try shifting by 1,000 and see what you get, ie, 0117 3070???, 0117 3071??? through to 0117 3079???

Going by the FOI response, I would start looking in the 0117 3071xxx area.

Result! I'm getting closer! I got through to a girl at Woodland Court, my sister's Hall of Residence. I dialled 011730711** and she confirmed I was through to the right place. Her 5 digit extension was not related in any way to the landline number though. Now it's just a matter of testing numbers! Do you think all the Woodland Court numbers are likely to start with 01173071***, being that I had some joy with this particular number? The girl was happy to know her landline number too, she says it's going to save her parents a ton of money! :P

That's great!

We don't know whether outside numbers map to extensions in sequential order or whether they are at random.

An example of each:

Sequential order would be where:

outside number		ext no
1136	maps to	5393
1137	maps to	5394
1138	maps to	5395
1139	maps to	5396
1140	maps to	5397
1141	maps to	5398

or where the two relate entirely at random so to make it nigh-on impossible to find the right number, eg:

outside number		ext no
1136	maps to	5236
1137	maps to	5591
1138	maps to	5334
1139	maps to	5203
1140	maps to	5520
1141	maps to	5276

If the former is correct and you have the girl's 0117 and extension number, then you can work out your sister's number. I would try that as the next step. If it works, then please let us know the mathematical relationship between the two.

The pair of 0117 and extension numbers - do any of the digits match, even the last one or two? Do you know what the 0870 number is which goes through to this room? That way you can compare the three numbers to see if there's any pattern.

I got it! :D Created a spreadsheet and spoke to about 60 different people at the Halls of Residence and finally I found someone in her flat. All the different flat numbers were grouped together, however not in numeric order. It looks like all the Woodland Court numbers go between 01173071000 and 01173071100, possibly going even higher than that, but I haven't experimented any further.

What I did find was that the last TWO digits of her 0870 number were identical to the last two digits of her landline equivalent. So for example, this being completely random: 087081487** is a Woodland Court number. The landline equivalent is 011730710** with the last two digits matching. The 5 digit internal extensions, as we thought, are completely randomized. The last digit is the same, but that's it.

I hope this information helps those who have family and loved ones at these Halls. Amazing detective work, thank you all so much for your help, especially Dave! :)

adamgoffin wrote on Sep 30^th, 2008 at 4:57pm:

What I did find was that the last TWO digits of her 0870 number were identical to the last two digits of her landline equivalent. So for example, this being completely random: 087081487** is a Woodland Court number. The landline equivalent is 011730710** with the last two digits matching. The 5 digit internal extensions, as we thought, are completely randomized. The last digit is the same, but that's it.

The numbers may be:

0870 81487** = 0117 30710**
0870 81488** = 0117 30711**
0870 81489** = 0117 30712**

etc