Quote:
Originally Posted by Republican_Boy
Turns out BT are also making 0800 numbers free to call from BT Mobile now. I think it goes ahead in May sometime, so that makes BT the first company to let its mobile customers call 0800 for free from their mobiles.
Only problem with that though is who actually has a BT Mobile account?
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Calls to freephone numbers were free on nearly all networks until 1999, Virgin Mobile introduced the lowest charge for calling freephone numbers in 2001 and remains the lowest compared to other networks.
BT Mobile no longer accepts new customers and they are expensive on purpose to force customers off so that they wont have to pay Vodafone such a large lease. They only offer BT Business Mobile and BT Mobile Broadband which also runs along Vodafone's network.
Orange recently stopped free access to freephone numbers because customers took the biscuit and used the free access for calling cards to call internationally whilst Orange didnt recieve a penny! Orange then started tracking all the calling card numbers but was complicated so they now just offer free access to 0800-REVERSE and certain charities like Virgin.
BT Payphones,Spectrum Interactive (New World Payphones) and Infolines Public Network payphones still offer free access to freephone numbers which I suggest you use when you are out and about. They get commision from the other end for this which is about 8p per minute, 18% of payphone revenue comes from this! Thats why its free, the non-BT payphone operators barred freephone numbers up until 1998 when oftel introduced the scheme, The non-BT operators mostly operate in busy city centres and towns where they make money, they maintain there kiosks alot better than BT's and all of them have lights unlike BT's where I had to stand in the dark when my battery went.
Mobile networks have to pay for connection to the the recieveing end for some reason which is why they dont offer free access.
Last year I moaned a T-Mobile why they charge 40p per minute for calling 08 numbers and they said ''Its a business decision and were able to do so since taking over the company from Cable and Wireless/United Artists.
Orange didnt reply!
Vodafone said it was because they had to pay another service provider such as BT Wholesale for termination rates.
O2 replied and just gave me the pay and go tariff sheet plus cheaper ways of calling freephone numbers, they didnt actually respond to my question!
So they only honest one was T-Mobile! lol