For the past 6 years, NTL and Telewest have been ripping off customers by charging customers up to 25p per minute to call mobiles when the companies only have to pay as little 2p per minute.
Thanks to a member of Cable Forum I finally cracked it as to why call quality is so crap when calling mobiles during peak times and all the time when calling Hutchison 3G mobiles.
NTL and Telewest have been using sim boxes to route calls through to mobiles. You'll know if a call is being routed through such systems as the call quality is very bad and sometimes calling line identification does not show up or it might be displayed as international. Sim boxes is where calls are being routed on the same network so that you avoid paying termination rates.
When calling mobiles from a Telewest line, I have experienced error messages by mobile operators. One was the T-Mobile pay as you go recording saying ''There are insufficient funds available in your account to connect this call'' and another saying ''This call cannot be completed as your account balance is too low,to top up purchase a 3 voucher and dial 444'' and once I was calling someone who was using 3 and a message saying ''Calls have been suspended on this mobile phone and your now being diverted to O2 customer service''.
I'm getting fed up of these messages and the crap call quality, when is it going to stop!
Rarely, I have been connected to someone elses mobile on a totally different network and just once got caught in a cross-line.
Anyone else experienced such problems? If so I think everyone reading this who is experiencing this problem should make Ofcom aware as I believe its illegal in the UK to use sim boxes for commercial use.
More information about sim boxes:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/12/mobile_sim_box/