Cheapoman wrote on Jun 1
st, 2006 at 9:15am:
Sorry, I find the terminology a bit confusing and geeky. To clarify - I pay £9.99 a month to Onetel for line rental and then route most of my calls through 18185 using an Orchid V4 dialler without any difficulty.
No apology necessary, it can be confusing.
Just so you're aware, OneTel (now part of the Carphone Warehouse, Talk Talk, Just Dial, Tele2 group) are actually just re-selling you BT line rental (I know that sounds odd). They buy at wholesale rates from BT (it's called Wholesale Line Rental - WLR) and then market at a small discount to make it appear a saving. What they don't tell you is that they charge (or, if they don't yet, they probably will when CPW finishes consolidating the various firms) for things which BT don't (e.g. Caller Display, basic 1571, Premium Rate number barring).
They also include in their T&Cs their right to bar access to other call providers (like 18185 and BT - 1280) and charge extra for 084/7 calls.
I've read that some Talk Talk customers (i.e. those who pay Talk Talk for line rental in the same way you pay OneTel) have had the ability to dial 1899, 18185, 18866 barred. One to bear in mind.