While switching ISPs I am going to be without broadband for about ten days. I am a heavy internet user (a researcher) and have a BT free evening and weekend calls that covers 03 numbers but not 08.

The only dial-up ISPs I can find are 08 numbers. I could run up a pretty heft bill in ten days!

Is there ANY dial-up ISP that uses an 03 number? Or a free number?

I guess not, but it's worth a shot!

HW

Wojtczak wrote on Nov 4^th, 2008 at 5:35am:

The only dial-up ISPs I can find are 08 numbers. I could run up a pretty heft bill in ten days!

That's because the revenue from the 08 number pays towards the service, hence they are "pay as you go" internet services.  ::)


Wojtczak wrote on Nov 4^th, 2008 at 5:35am:

Is there ANY dial-up ISP that uses an 03 number? Or a free number?

The thread for ISPs with geographical numbers is here. Note that BT excludes from its tariffs those 01/02 numbers it has identified as being for dial-up internet.

Free ISP dial-up numbers are available where you pay an upfront flat monthly fee for the service. It might be worth asking your new ISP if you can have this facility whilst you await the new service.

I do think ISPs should consider providing a geographical dial-up service for customers awaiting ADSL connection, or for when there's a fault. The landscape is very different from when we used to search for dial-up ISPs' numbers, and when BT introduced their policy of charging differently for them: in those days, almost everyone used dial-up. If such geographical numbers were made available by ISPs only for their own customers using a password, it should work out fine - it's not as if the customers are going to use a dial-up number once they have access to ADSL.

As for your 10 days, you will presumably not be paying for broadband for that period, so the money you save can either be used for paying the 0845 costs, or for subscribing to an 0800 dial-up service.

The whole issue of it taking two weeks to get ADSL connected needs to be sorted out. No-one would wait that long for other utilities, not even a landline phone. Internet access needs to be seen as the important utility it is, not as a nicety for game-players.

Thanks for the reply and links.

How will I know when I dial the 01/02 numbers whether BT is charging me or not? If they DO charge me, won't I have grounds to have the charges struck from my account on the grounds that their Terms and Conditions say 01/02 calls are free? I have not seen any exceptions listed on their website.

JRAWLE Yes, you make a very good point, particularly because " it's not as if the customers are going to use a dial-up number once they have access to ADSL."

I am changing to Sky, and it's only because of THEIR rules and working practices that I am going to be without broadband for ten days. I don't WANT to be, but it's something I have to put up with to change.

So yes, I agree: Sky ought to give me a dial-up number while I wait for them to connect me.

Wojtczak wrote on Nov 4^th, 2008 at 2:36pm:

How will I know when I dial the 01/02 numbers whether BT is charging me or not? If they DO charge me, won't I have grounds to have the charges struck from my account on the grounds that their Terms and Conditions say 01/02 calls are free? I have not seen any exceptions listed on their website.

You won't know until you check the bill, or if you view your account online you can check after one trial call. BT's terms still say it excludes "national geographic numbers used to dial up ISP's, other non voice calls and calls to the Channel Islands". You are unlikely to get far complaining about your bill if the number was for an ISP, as the terms say all numbers for ISPs are excluded. If you happened to use a number that BT didn't know was an ISP, that would be considered lucky, rather than considering BT to be breaking their terms by not providing a list.

Wojtczak wrote on Nov 4^th, 2008 at 2:36pm:

How will I know when I dial the 01/02 numbers whether BT is charging me or not? …

By following the link I provided you with in reply #1.

Dave wrote on Nov 4^th, 2008 at 3:38pm:

By following the link I provided you with in reply #1.

Useful page! But even when entering a number that's not excluded, it says:


Quote:

...zero pence per minute call rates available with BT Together Options apply to voice calls only

Does that mean they still reserve the right to charge? And are they saying that fax numbers are supposed to be excluded too?

Another alternative is to do what I did last time we went on holiday...

I got a free t-mobile pay-as-you-go SIM card, stuck it in my mobile phone, plugged in the USB cable, and used it as a broadband modem!  current rates are £2/day, £10/week, £20/month.

irrelevant wrote on Nov 4^th, 2008 at 8:15pm:

Another alternative is to do what I did last time we went on holiday... I got a free t-mobile pay-as-you-go SIM card, stuck it in my mobile phone, plugged in the USB cable, and used it as a broadband modem!  current rates are £2/day, £10/week, £20/month.

Which tariff were you on? There are a number of T-Mobile PAYG tariffs, many of which were withdrawn in September.

http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/help-and-advice/our-brochures/

There current "talk and text" PAYG tariff has a daily price cap for internet access of just £1, but it has a fair use policy of 40MB. It also says:

Quote:

We do not permit use of this service to provide modem access for a computer or for peer to peer file sharing, internet phone calls or instant messaging.

I was just quotng the prices here:
http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-broadband/pay-per-day-options/
which actually might not be the right ones for a pay-as-you-go sim; it does seem more than I paid at the time for a web-n-walk pass.  

Yes, it says not for connecting to a PC, but they don't seem to bother about it, and I can't see them doing so unless you are blatantly abusing it.  Certainly I never had a problem in the week I was using it, although it wasn't for much more than checking emails and a bit of Runescape!   Not sure on usage limits on web-n-walk, but I guess it depends how heavy you use it, but given the OP was about dial-up internet, then a,n assumption of fairly light use should be reasonable.

irrelevant wrote on Nov 5^th, 2008 at 11:37am:

I was just quotng the prices here: http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-broadband/pay-per-day-options/ which actually might not be the right ones for a pay-as-you-go sim; it does seem more than I paid at the time for a web-n-walk pass.

Web-n-walk is what you get as standard on PAYG, which I quoted earlier, with a £1 cap. The "pay per day" above is a more advanced product that allows access to wi-fi as wall as mobile broadband (which presumably includes 3G?) I don't know if that's available as an add-on for PAYG or just for contract customers.