I've just noticed today that Call18866.co.uk are now charging 4p connection fee for all calls made from a BT landline, using the 18866 prefix.

As of yet, I haven't received notification of this by e-mail.

1899.com now seems to be the cheapest for standard UK daytime calls - At 3p connection fee.

Thanks
Daniel

Thank you both.
18185 for mobiles and Brussels (0.5p - excellent) and 1899 for t'other use. Resting 18866 pro tem.
But worth the adjustments - so thank you again.

The email notification is actually at the bottom of one of their "sale" emails. People who don't make calls to the countries included in their "sale" are likely not to read down as far as the end where it says that the increase in connection charge starts on 30 Nov:


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Yes, I also noticed this.  I sneaky price increase in small print at the bottom of the e-mail.

I haven't used 18866 for about a year, and only made about 150 or so calls at 1p each.

Since then, I used Tele2, who offered free evening and weekend calls for no monthly fee.  I also have a few mobiles with inclusive minutes, and free line rental, which in effect means I pay nothing to have a mobile.  Instead of paying for my calls, I use my inclusive minutes instead!!

Paying 4p per call is almost as uncompetitive as BT!!  Some of the more well known brands are charging around 4p per call now.

However I won't be cancelling 18866, but instead, leave my account which owes about £1.50 in limbo.  They only collect if you owe more than £5, so having a dormant account owing just under £5 will do more harm for them than cancelling, and probably being asked to pay back the £1.50 I owe them!!

andy9 wrote on Nov 30^th, 2005 at 5:14pm:


Well its now 30th Nov and the 1899 website still says 3p connection fee but as I won't be back at home till later this evening after 4 days away I can't check out whether this is actually the case.  It would be hard to understand a price rise to 4p connection fee on 18866 without a corresponding connection fee rise on 1899 as up to now its simply looked like 18866 was the loss leader product that was having its prices raised to the same level as other Finarea group indirect access PSTN products.  Clearly raising the connection fee to 4p on 1899 and 18866 but also extending the cheap 0870, mobile and international pricing from 18185 to these brands would make a lot of business sense.  But charging 4p connection on 18866 and not on 1899 makes little or no sense.

I suspect Finarea has now acquired enough phone customers Europe wide and is getting close to the flog off to a big telco stage.  And to get a good price from a big telco one needs to raise future customer revenue projections.  And to do this one has to raise call prices whilst not raising them so high that the customer will leave.  However as most other telcos charge 4p connection per call but most also charge per minute in the weekday daytime then Finarea still looks attractive for anyone averaging only 3 calls a day.  Although Tiscali charge only £4 per month extra for all 01/02 calls on top of their monthly broadband charge the fact is that Tiscali's broadband service is an utter disgrace and only the naive and uninformed will sign up to 12 months of Tiscali broadband hell.

It seems to me that Finarea is probably going to be flogged off to a big telco in the next 12 months and that for anyone who still wants cheap calls without a subscription voip will be the way to go.  And if one wants to use voip for all one's calls (including incoming) then an ATA is the only way to go as having to have a PC on all the time is not really acceptable (also voice quality using an ATA with a decent quality anallogue phone is much better than most computer headsets).

As someone who is at times away from home for several days at a time but in a role where it may suit me to look as though I'm at home it seems that one of thexe flexible ATAs could be very handy.  Of course in the long run it would appear that voip calls may be routable to one's 3G/4G mobile via voip (although I doubt without charge) but the cost of such phones and line rental is currently prohibitive and its clear that Vodafone, Orange etc will fight tooth and nail to block external voip calls from other telcos for as long as they possibly can.

By the way Andy what is the other global SIM product you refer to and which country is it based in?  The fact that Voipcheap can now do Liechtenstein mobiles for less than 7p per minute shows that the rate of European mobile calls can only continue to plunge ever lower.

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Toucan dont have a min call charge,but they operate per minute billing,and charge an extra £1 for a paper bill.

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I think this will merit a new thread (in a day or two; time for bed now), rather than wander off-topic more on here, as it will be quite detailed - containing 5 altogether.

Briefly on tariffs though, before describing the SIMs - unfortunately I think that may be something of a false assumption or wishful thinking on your part, and I'll elaborate on that a bit as well.

TELECOM PLUS - under the name of Utility Warehouse Discount Club charges 2p per minute anywhere in the world, using CPS, and they also take over the LINE RENTAL from BT, saving about 50p per month + VAT, I've been a customer for 8 months and am really happy! Want to know more, visit their website on www.utilitywarehouse.co.uk, if you want to sign up come back to me and I'll tell you how....