Cheap call providers with access code from NTL?

[Aragorn]

Hi,

I work at home a lot and have quite poor Vodafone reception. I would prefer not to use the NTL phone for work as I would have to send my full bill in to expenses each month.

Several of my colleagues on BT lines use one of the cheap dialers, such as Onetel, with a prefix to get a separate bill that can be sent to expenses but Onetel don't work on NTL without a 'widget' on the line.

Does anyone know of any companies with a 4 digit access code and no monthly charge from NTL?

Dellwear posted about call1899, but that has a full freephone access no and then wait for a tone before dialing the real no. Has anyone used call1899, or are they 'too good to be true'?

TIA

[Millay]

Have you considered VoIP, I use it a lot and is comperable to a land line.

I use pipemdia, but there are many other good offers out there..

[Matth]

1899 and 18866 keep tripping over each other, and they feature often in discount forums. Both seem to offer incredible call deals - and seem to have survived for quite some time.

http://www.call1899.co.uk/voip.php - they also have a beta VoiIP service

http://www.call18866.co.uk/mobilerates.php - rates slightly different to 1899, but lower connection (1p instead of 3p)

I don't know if they are two different companies, or two brands from the same one?

No way to have prefix access on NTL though.

[Juan]

Call18866 charge 0.5p per minute for a NTL line.

[Aragorn]

Originally Posted by Millay

Have you considered VoIP, I use it a lot and is comperable to a land line.

I use pipemdia, but there are many other good offers out there..

Nice idea, but not sure it would be practical in my situation. I would need a cordless VOIP 'hard' phone which the company probably wouldn't pay for

Software VOIP probably wouldn't work with the corp firewall.

[swinster]

Been looking at just these things recently. Try the Draytek Vigor 2100V router. It will plug into your cable modem and act a any other kind of router, but it also has the ability of supporting VoIP internet calls AND ordinarry calls to and from a land line.

It enables ordinary handsets (including DECT wireless handsets) to be plugged into it it and means that you can both make and recieve calls via the Internet (SIP) and normal landline from the one device.

It also means that you don't actually need a computer to make internet calls. It dosen't support Skype - for that you will need another device that plugs into a computer via USB, but with a bit of ateral think it is possible to combine both devices to make call on all three systems (landline, SIP and Skype) from the one handset.

The router also manages a firewall and QoS so call quality should be OK. You just need to sign up to a SIP provide such as sipgate.co.uk.

All for about £85 shouldn't be bad. I have come up with some ideas for other device but unfortunately they only exist in my head.

[obvious]

Hey swinster I keep bumping into you all over the place.

I was also looking at ditching the landline and going with a Drayek + sipgate but I'm not sure if these routers use the STUN protocol which apparently is required by sipgate?

[swinster]

Hey Obvious,

Someone replied to your thread in Vopiuser. Apparently STUN is not needed for SIPgate, which doesn't really help me - er - what is STUN??

Are you planning on doing the same thing (i.e droping the landline). If so do you have digital TV with NTL as well? Have you been in touch with them about disconnections yet?

I talked to a NTL rep last week and wanted to know about how much money I could save by switching tariffs. I though he would be able to provide this info at the touch of a button, but no. He spent twenty min extracting all the similar mobile number I called, totalling the seconds and applying a tariff on a calulator for just one month. He gave up in the end.

I have been meaning to call NTL and say I want to drop the line, but I bet they say it is tied to the TV package. I would like to get something else in place anyhow to still have an incomming local number via VoIP before I disconnect or worst case senario simply stop using to NTL line.

[obvious]

Not sure if you can dump the ntl phone line according to the T&Cs. I managed it quite nicely by dumping both ntl TV and telephone at the same time and going for Sky+ and BT (only got ntl broadband now)

I emailed Draytek regarding STUN and they said

The 2100V and 2100VG support SIP and STUN. The 2900VG doesn't support STUN but may in a future firmware version. STUN is only needed if you have a private IP address. So if a 2900VG had a public IP address from the ISP STUN wouldn't be required.

Which leads me to believe that this page on the sipgate site is misleading.

The upshot seems to be that for ntl users who are not NAT'ed, an 'Analogue Telephone Adapter" (ATA) should do the trick and allow the use of a 'Plain Old Telephone (POT - Cant believe they use this acronym) as long as you've got a switch/router to plug it into. Otherwise I guess it would be better to get something like the Draytek for an all in one solution.

[swinster]

Originally Posted by obvious

Which leads me to believe that this page on the sipgate site is misleading.

The upshot seems to be that for ntl users who are not NAT'ed, an 'Analogue Telephone Adapter" (ATA) should do the trick and allow the use of a 'Plain Old Telephone (POT - Cant believe they use this acronym) as long as you've got a switch/router to plug it into. Otherwise I guess it would be better to get something like the Draytek for an all in one solution.

Maybe. I think what they are saying is that if thier device sits behind another router there maybe problem. Also, Sipgate are selling IP phones, which more than likely will have to go through a router and so STUN would be required.

I use a software router (Win 2000 server) at the mo but would like to get a hardware device and the addition of FXS/FXO and wireless on the 2100VG should fit the bill without costing to much. I'm not interesting in seperate lines (which I assume could be achived by multiple adapters or IP phones) and simply want all my internal phone to ring when an IP call is recieved. I think this would be achiveable by wireing in the entire phone network to the routers FXS port.

[OinkyBoinky]

I've been using the 1899 voip inconjunction with SipGate for incoming calls.. very good personally...

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by swinster

I have been meaning to call NTL and say I want to drop the line, but I bet they say it is tied to the TV package

Unfortunately, the ntl phone line is tied to the TV package. If you have ntl TV, you *have* to pay for the ntl phone line too (unless you have an offer, such as the current one which I think gives new customers 12months free line rental if they take the Family Pack).

[swinster]

Originally Posted by Matt D

Unfortunately, the ntl phone line is tied to the TV package. If you have ntl TV, you *have* to pay for the ntl phone line too (unless you have an offer, such as the current one which I think gives new customers 12months free line rental if they take the Family Pack).

Yeah I kind got this impression from another thread. Still it won't harm to try I suppose. Given that "new" customer get a deal, it almost make you want cancel and re-apply. AFter we do it with the mortgage, mobiles, insurance etc....

[andygrif]

You can, however, sign up to a service where you have to dial an 0800 freephone number first, then the number you want. This does work through and ntl line.

There are three that I know of (there must be others too) and these are Swiftcall, Alpha Telecom and Planet Talk.

[Lemonhunny]

I signed up online to www.onetel.co.uk and got a £20 credit for signing up online. Four months later I'm still not paying a bill to them as I use the phone evenings (5p per hour) and weekends (totally free).

As far as I could find out, Onetel were the only company offering this sort of service to cable phone line users. I didn't like the box they supplied to put onto the phone line, as it only goes to one phone, not the extensions in the house, I prefer to dial the (rather long) number preceding a message, telling me to dial the number I want including the area code, followed by the hash key.

Works brilliantly in my house with two teenage daughters, and saves me a fortune in topping up their mobiles!