trubster wrote on Feb 16^th, 2007 at 2:00am:


On this topic, can I have some advice...?

I currently have BT phone - £11/month with Dialler to 18185/1899 etc to access good prices for European and USA calls   and

PlusNet 8Mb - £21.99 (low contention) -but I need a reliable fast connection for business with good customer service. No complaints
Total: £32.99

My family wants Sky TV. If I buy the £26/month (+£11 BT line) deal can I still select my phone carrier to get the cheap calls?

I can't answer this directly (can hardly get Sky in the US - and anyway, I definitely wouldn't want to as you will see!) but I do listen to a certain streamed UK radio station over my cable link. They have been pushing the Sky package really hard just recently, and out of idle curiosity, I thought I'd have a look at what was on offer. I nearly fell out of my chair! If you look carefully - and behind and beyond the fluff and gloss - their charges are outrageous! If you made international calls on Sky, their proud boast is that they are '10% cheaper than BT'. Well, as BT are even more glaringly outrageous, that's hardly a recommendation.

If it were me, I'd be looking very carefully at my call patterns over the last six months or so, and then put those calls costs into Sky's tariffs. Unless you are currently with BT (bad choice!), then I think that just about anyone else could beat them. Not an easy task, I agree - the telcos are the masters of obscure and hard-to-follow tariffs.

And - don't forget that when dealing with Sky, as people on this site constantly comment, you are dealing with one of the most devious and underhand companies currently trading in the UK. This is the firm that almost certainly monitors this website, and disconnects their geographic numbers that are found in place of their almost ubiquitous use of 0870 numbers. I'd also bet London to a brick that they will make absolutely sure you can't use any override prefixes on their system. That's what sort of outfit they are. Would you REALLY want to deal with them as your phone provider?

mikeinnc wrote on Feb 17^th, 2007 at 10:26pm:


Mike,

Are you originally from the UK like idb as I must say the phrase "bet London to a brick" is definitely not a UK one.  In fact its almost bound to be a colloquial NYC or possibly a general US expression the more you think about it  i.e. no one in London would say "London to a Brick".

Curiously enough I have actually visited the old London Bridge not in London (I'm not quite old enough to have managed that) but in a place called Lake Havasu City in Arizona.  It does have an awful lot more character than the current 1960s monstrosity but you can see why they needed to widen it.  A British friend of mine who now lives in California maintains the whole thing is a con though and the London Bridge in Lake Havasu is a fake and not made from the original bricks at all.  He claims those bricks are now to be found residing at the bottom of a quarry in the South East of England somewhere.

Coming back to Sky well yes they are a devious company (although not nearly as devious and content with a third rate product as TalkTalk who really leave all other rivals for this title standing) but as it happens with their talk plan they only provide the calls via  a BT system called CPS or Carrier Pre-Selection that automatically routes calls with them unless you enter the prefix for another call carrying company you have signed or with BT.  So you can sign up for calls with any other company such as www.18185.co.uk and route your calls with them instead.  You stil get the bill for line rental from BT.  This contrasts with TalkTalk who use the system known as WLR (Wholesale Line Rental) where although the line is still BT's property you get your whole phone bill including line rental from TalkTalk and they do bar you from making calls with any other company including BT.

But yes Sky are hideously overpriced as their cheapest television package is £15 a month for which you only get a handful of channels and their most expensive on Sky HD is £65 per month or so.  And £299 for the Sky HD box and installation as well in the first year.

4PetesSake wrote on Feb 19^th, 2007 at 1:05pm:
Personally, I wouldn't say the increase was unjustifiable.  Call18185, 1899, etc have to pay per minute charges for calls to BT landline (or another terminating communication provider like NTL:TW (now VirginMedia).  They also have to pay BT a setup fee so that your calls are routed away from BT and onto Call18185.  I'm not certain if this setup fee is a one-off new connection type thing, per call or annual thing.

All in all I just don't know how they can make any profit with charging 5p per call to a geographical number especially if you're on it for a while - quick phonecalls possibly.

Quote:


It's most likely an Australian colloquialism! I've never heard it said in the US .... but it is common in the Antipodes 

....and, yes, NGM, I must admit that, once upon a time and more years ago than I wish to admit to, I actually lived and worked in and around Dorking. Not a million miles from you, I'd wager! If I told you that the building I worked in is opposite the Dorking Halls, that may give you a clue.......

But, as we also say, I definitely barrack for the Aussies now....

World Cup, anyone.....? 

NGMsGhost wrote on Feb 19^th, 2007 at 5:51pm:


Some users suspect that Finarea is in the business mainly to collect user’s data to sell for telemarketing purposes,not that i have seen any evidence of this.