mikemundy wrote on Jan 17^th, 2006 at 3:25pm:



Its possible that on the same big city exchange Finarea's routing system is intelligent enough to run the call directly without complex international routing coming  back in to the UK.  So if you are on a big city exchange 1899 can probably cut out BT altogether.

Perhaps you can say what kind of area you live in (urban/rural) and even the place if its not confidential.

Ideally though I need another SayNoto0870 person to ring me on their line with 18866 or 1899 from an also small rural exchange to see what happens with that.  The name of Tanllan springs to mind as someone possibly meeting all the relevant criteria.  Anyone else who wants to is welcome to PM me to ask for my phone number.  I can also call you to test what happens in reverse using 1899 and 18185.

I see if I switch to the Post Office I can save £35.00 or so line rental over 6 months (the cash back period) even after paying for Caller Display due to their £50 cashback, which is paid after 3 and 6 months, and their slightly cheaper line rental on top.  My mum could save £50 on her second line for the burglar alarm.  Only snag would be having to switch to Voip for all outgoing call routing (but this would save another £4 a month).  Can anyone recommend a USB Voip handset that they think does a good job.  The ATA options start to look unattractive once one realises that the standalone ATAs don't manage QOS (Quality of Service) and that a decent wireless ADSL modem router with QOS such as those from Billion are about £120.00.  So perhaps just a basic Voip phone handset replacement for outgoing calls, till such time as WiMax gets here (when I can then axe my BT line) would be the answer.

I wonder what happened to PeDaSp.  He used to be rather knowledgeable on all matters Voip.

What is CLI  is it caller identification?

reggie wrote on Jan 20^th, 2006 at 1:00pm:

Calling Line Identification.
Caller Display is the "retail" name - and not always the same, because whilst the line's i/d can not change, the display can...

mikemundy wrote on Jan 20^th, 2006 at 3:56pm:

Mike, I have looked at your website at www.burgess-hill.co.uk and I see you have a freephone telephone number and 0870 fax number for your B&B. This is very commendable to have a free number, although the 0870 fax somewhat lets the side down.

The numbers are in international format "+44 (0) 8..." and I understand that you can't dial UK 0800 numbers from abroad. They are also charged at higher rates than normal geographical numbers from UK mobiles. May I suggest that you display your geographical number in international format and the 0800 number for those in the UK who wish to use it?

What's more, those on inclusive call packages who get their calls 'free' will not pay to call 01444, just as they wouldn't for 0800, but you always pay to receive calls on 0800 choose where they originate from.

mikemundy wrote on Jan 21^st, 2006 at 4:06pm:

I see it's been changed. Glad to be of help.

mikemundy wrote on Jan 21^st, 2006 at 4:06pm:

That's a good idea, although some frown upon it and see it as simply joining in the 0870 rip-off. Anyway, I imagine that there are some suppliers that you use who use 0845/0870 numbers. I'm sure that you've used the resources on here to try and find alternatives.

I started using 18866 and then 1899 from my BT line 2 years ago.

I then encouraged friends and family to join up too.

What we found was daytime weekdays on the receiving BT line caller display it would most times display "International" occasionally it would display "0044121nnnnnnn" or "44121nnnnnnn" though once or twice "044121nnnnnnn".

I had occasionally received the CLID on calls from the USA, France and Spain, but mostly "International".

Now I have dropped my landline completely and just use VoIP (using an ATA and my standard phones) I receive the CLID on calls no matter where in the world they come from if the sending network sends the CLID, also means when people use 1899, 18866 or 18185 to call me I get to see there number whether it is 0121nnnnnnn or 0044121nnnnnnn.  Looking at my incoming call logs I can see that Fr 6 Jan 2006 was the last date that daytime calls via 18866/1899 where showing as 0044121.....

Interesting.  All 3 incoming calls from 1899 users today have carried full (international) CLI.

I wonder whether BT have caved in?

Interesting this, I have noticed recently that when I receive calls from my home number at my office it shows 'Private', this has only recently happened and I am with OneTel Unlimited. The same is now happening from my O2 mobile to home, but only on one of the O2 mobiles. Having tried it out with various colleagues etc there dosnt seem to be a pattern, some show the full number, some Private. So it would seem it is not only BT removing the CLI.