bt broadband voice over IP service is a con

hiya

just set mine up today

tucked away deep down in BTS website is the definition of evening calls -
6pm - 8pm WOW no use what so ever

also weekend is classed as midnight friday till midnight sunday, not friday
evening

also i cannot call my 055xxx number from a telewest line

any comments anyone ?

cheers

paul woolley

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 17:16, "Paul Woolley" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>tucked away deep down in BTS website is the definition of evening
>calls - 6pm - 8pm WOW no use what so ever

Are you sure - I'd have thought that was simply the off-peak 6 PM
to 8 AM hours... who uses 12 hour clocks these days :-) A URL if
this 6 pm to 8 pm restriction is online would be good...

As for calling from Telewest, I guess they have to add an entry to
their billing system before allowingg calls through. BT had its
allocation of numbers a while ago but clearly has only just now
started using them... If you cannot dial it from TW it is a TW
problem (I expect the same will be true with various mobiles for
a month or six, just as there were problems calling personal nos
back in 95/96 from some networks as they had no 070 codes enabled.

In article <Vt%Eb.702$(E-Mail Removed)>,
"Paul Woolley" <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:
> just set mine up today
>
> tucked away deep down in BTS website is the definition of evening calls -
> 6pm - 8pm WOW no use what so ever
>
> also weekend is classed as midnight friday till midnight sunday, not friday
> evening

The 8pm is probably a misprint. The BT Price List is the important
document which BT have to stick to for charges. For broadband voice call
pricing it's Section 3, Part 1, Sub Part 15.2 which defines it.

http://www.serviceview.bt.com/list/c...oo/0037110.htm

Unfortunately it just mentions "daytime", "evenings & night-time" and
"weekend" without actually defining them. Elsewhere (e.g. throughout the
main section on call charges) it does define these terms:

daytime: Mon-Fri 8am-6pm
evenings & night-time: Mon-Fri before 8am & after 6pm
weekend: All Day Sat & Sun

Beacuse of that it would be difficult to argue that the terms meant
anything different when they subsequently appear without definition
in the broadband voice part.

> also i cannot call my 055xxx number from a telewest line
>
> any comments anyone ?

Telewest along with many other operators are free to block access to any
individual numbers, or groups of numbers they feel like. Operators do this
for a variety of reasons: sometimes it's a deliberate commercial ploy
(e.g. mobile operators blocking free calls to competitors), sometimes it's
just they can't be bothered. Only BT (and Kingston Communications in Hull)
have to offer full access.

--
Tim Clark

Although it is usually bad to follow up your own posting, I thought
I had better do here, as I was guilty of perpetuating a common
misconception.

In article <6172sb.gv5.ln@basil>,
"Tim Clark" <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:
> In article <Vt%Eb.702$(E-Mail Removed)>,
> "Paul Woolley" <(E-Mail Removed)> writes:
>> just set mine up today
.....
>> also i cannot call my 055xxx number from a telewest line
>>
>> any comments anyone ?
>
> Telewest along with many other operators are free to block access to any
> individual numbers, or groups of numbers they feel like. Operators do this
> for a variety of reasons: sometimes it's a deliberate commercial ploy
> (e.g. mobile operators blocking free calls to competitors), sometimes it's
> just they can't be bothered. Only BT (and Kingston Communications in Hull)
> have to offer full access.

I was incorrect about BT and KC _having_ to offer full access. This is a
common misconception. In practice they do, and Oftel (shortly Ofcom) would be
pretty likely to consider them anticompetitive and take action if they, in
effect, started a boycott of competitors numbers. However, a well informed
source believes there is nothing to stop them being a little selective, like
stopping calls to Geographic numbers used for ISP access within certain
calling plans for example.

--
Tim Clark