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Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p (Read 23,425 times)
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Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Nov 28th, 2005 at 5:32pm
 
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
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bigjohn
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #1 - Nov 28th, 2005 at 8:43pm
 
They only made their last increase in Sept.  Angry

If they carry on at this rate it might be worth getting an inclusive call  package , at least you want have a congestion problem at weekends.
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BJ.
 
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #2 - Nov 28th, 2005 at 9:06pm
 
Thank you both.
18185 for mobiles and Brussels (0.5p - excellent) and 1899 for t'other use. Resting 18866 pro tem. Smiley
But worth the adjustments - so thank you again.
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #3 - Nov 29th, 2005 at 12:07pm
 
Very sneaky 18866 !!!
Not even mentioned as a "Latest Headline", you need to look for the small-print above to find it and even that isn't an announcement.
Confidence in 18866 has disappeared, they seem totally devious (connection has doubled in the last two months) - time to switch.
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #4 - Nov 29th, 2005 at 5:00pm
 
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:


Quote:
----- Original Message -----
From: <george@18866.co.uk>
To: <george@18866.co.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2005 2:08 PM
Subject: 18866 international sale!


Dear customer,

Call the following countries for only 0.5 pence per minute*!
Argentina
Denmark
Italy
Netherlands
Norway

For more details and free online registration please visit
www.call18866.co.uk.

Kind regards,
The Call18866 Team

If you wish to unsubscribe from this newsletter:
http://www.call18866.co.uk/newsletter.php



*From the 30th of November 18866 will apply a connection fee of 4p per
call.
Please note that calls to landlines within the U.K. will remain 0.0 p
per minute.


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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #5 - Nov 29th, 2005 at 9:04pm
 
Can anyone understand the crazy business logic of Finarea and their many telecoms brands?

18866 was their founding cheap uk calls brand and the one with by far the most loyal customers and now they try shafting them with these repeated significant price increases, whilst offering better rates to mobiles, 0870 and for overseas calls with 18185.  Also better rates to overseas mobiles with www.dialaround.co.uk and www.bestminutes.co.uk

If 1899 also increase the connection fee (as I fully expect we will learn that they are doing tomorrow) then I will simply consolidate everything on to 18185 and make plans post hase to investigate either a monthly 01/02 calls plan or a voip option.  The Sipura SPA-3000 looks very interesting with its call forwarding options now that calls to my Liechtenstein Riiing mobile on www.voipcheap.co.uk are only 6.5p per minute and a voip call forward to a uk landline would be free.

By the way I can't understand some of you saying you have seen the price rise on bills already as their "Sale" email to me says the price rise comes in tomorrow.

If this 4p connection charge isn't repeated on 1899 can we begin to assume that 18185, 18866, 1899 dialaround etc are all sub franchise operations of Finarea competing with each other?
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #6 - Nov 30th, 2005 at 5:10pm
 
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!!
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #7 - Nov 30th, 2005 at 5:14pm
 
Quote:
Can anyone understand the crazy business logic of Finarea and their many telecoms brands?
~~

If this 4p connection charge isn't repeated on 1899 can we begin to assume that 18185, 18866, 1899 dialaround etc are all sub franchise operations of Finarea competing with each other?

Can't really understand why they need to have around 10 of them here altogether, but they seem to have several in each other country where they operate. I was struck by just how similar one of their French sites is to 1899, same layout, same woman's picture, so I doubt they are all separate. Maybe different people go for different branding, colours, graphics on the website ... really don't know.

On calling Liechtenstein mobile, I had replies that it would not be added as a destination on 18866 or 1899 and they recommended Telediscount, which isn't very helpful for calling from a mobile. With the introduction of other global roaming SIMs, the cheapest way to call one of the others is for about 1.2p/min, but this is also certainly a mistake, on a par with calling most of the world for 1p/min back in June, so I'm not sure about going for it.

Yes, the Sipura product is interesting, but still costs quite a bit of money before any savings are made, and I'm just thinking that many of the calls that would divert in and out could be made at similar tariffs anyway without the hardware ... as I see it, and without claiming to understand all of it, the Sipura routing only really adds call diversion possibilities to your existing number compared to the use of a separate new one. But I can see that renting an ordinary landline number should be less necessary.


But back on topic, at 4p a go, it is little cheaper off-peak than BT, and is likely to make more people think about the various cps deals with free off-peak calls. And the usage threshold that makes people look at all-in cps has just moved, so they may find it difficult to keep all their customers ...
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« Last Edit: Nov 30th, 2005 at 5:18pm by andy9 »  
 
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #8 - Nov 30th, 2005 at 7:06pm
 
andy9 wrote on Nov 30th, 2005 at 5:14pm:
Yes, the Sipura product is interesting, but still costs quite a bit of money before any savings are made, and I'm just thinking that many of the calls that would divert in and out could be made at similar tariffs anyway without the hardware ... as I see it, and without claiming to understand all of it, the Sipura routing only really adds call diversion possibilities to your existing number compared to the use of a separate new one. But I can see that renting an ordinary landline number should be less necessary.


But back on topic, at 4p a go, it is little cheaper off-peak than BT, and is likely to make more people think about the various cps deals with free off-peak calls. And the usage threshold that makes people look at all-in cps has just moved, so they may find it difficult to keep all their customers ...


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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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #9 - Nov 30th, 2005 at 7:11pm
 
By the way who apart from the Post Office offering CPS has no minimum connection fee?  Is Toucan Telecom another one?

I currently have CPS on TalkOne with TalkTalk but I use this only for the 30 minutes of free mobile calls a month which continues to fall in value by the month.

Its just that I have a couple of friends who still use old fashioned dial up internet in conjunction with BT 1571 and these are a nightmare as one can't use RingBack when they are on the internet and instead gets shafted for numerous minimum connection fees.  So in these circumstances using the Post Office for calls that one immediately has to keep hanging up (when 1571 cuts in) may be preferable.
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #10 - Nov 30th, 2005 at 11:15pm
 
Quote:
By the way who apart from the Post Office offering CPS has no minimum connection fee?  Is Toucan Telecom another one?


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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BJ.
 
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NonGeographicalMan
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #11 - Dec 1st, 2005 at 12:36am
 
bigjohn wrote on Nov 30th, 2005 at 11:15pm:
Toucan dont have a min call charge,but they operate per minute billing,and charge an extra £1 for a paper bill.

Does the Post Office have per minute billing?  Also what happens with the Post Office in the evening and at the weekend to 01 and 02 numbers?   Surely they do effectively have a minimum fee then since there is no pence per minute call rate?

Looks like voipcheap and an ATA would be my answer to all this.  Except of course that I'm sure that Finarea won't keep voipcheap free for uk calls indefinitely.
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« Last Edit: Dec 1st, 2005 at 12:36am by N/A »  
 
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #12 - Dec 1st, 2005 at 2:37am
 
Quote:
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.

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.

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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #13 - Dec 1st, 2005 at 2:46am
 
Quote:
Its just that I have a couple of friends who still use old fashioned dial up internet in conjunction with BT 1571 and these are a nightmare as one can't use RingBack when they are on the internet ...

Suggest they find out if they can use Call Waiting instead - one of the programs on the disk that came with this modem detects that to notify incoming calls. I can't put modem on hold as the ISP doesn't use v92 modems for me, but I can still hang up.
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Re: Call18866 - Increase connection fee to 4p
Reply #14 - Dec 1st, 2005 at 3:05am
 
Roll Eyes 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....
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