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BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

mgillespie
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Registered: ‎08-04-2007

BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/08/bt_premium_cuts/
0845 and 0870 are a large proportion of my chargable calls these days.  I don't suppose Plusnet are looking into costings of these numbers?
Also of note, is this link: http://www.saynoto0870.com/
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James
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Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

Not currently I'm afraid.
I've highlighted that link to our product team for future refeence though (although they probably already knew).
dvorak
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Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

Not unexpected, but kind of a shame. This and the free caller id are gonna keep me tied to BT for my phone line.
Was coming up to the end of a 12 month contract and was having a look around.
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Bud
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Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

Seen this earlier today and as as I am coming near to the end of my 12 month contract with plusnet I may well be heading back to BT for line rental!
HPsauce
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Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

Quote from: adiewoo
This and the free caller id are gonna keep me tied to BT for my phone line.

I've been round the loop several times over the years and concluded, for my pattern of use at least, switching to other providers for phone services isn't worth the effort and risk involved. Sad but true. Sad
I think overall there's just so little margin in the landline phone business that it's very difficult to have a clear advantage.
The only exceptions are when the infrastructure is separated to a greater or lesser extent (e.g. Virgin or TalkTalk) or subsidised (Sky?).
In this particular case BT have picked, quite cleverly, on something that irritates people but won't cost them much to remove the irritation.
dabow
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Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

It will certainly be a great pity if Plusnet does not eventually follow the lead, Homephone packages will become considerably less attractive for many people. Sad
James
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Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

Guys - To be clear, this is something being offered by BT Retail.  We already have a lower base cost (especially with our current special offers) and offer lower costs to most telephhone numbers.  If we were to offer included minutes to 0845 & 0870 we'd ultimately have to do one of the following:
- Increase base cost
- Increase cost of calls to (for example) mobiles
- Have an 0845/0870 addon
Ultimately, it's important that we don't offer something that loses us money.  Our Home Phone service has a number of plus points over that of BT and it's just natural that theirs will have something over ours.
Be3G
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Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

I think everyone realises that - all they're saying is that, quite rightly, it makes Plusnet's offering less competitive. For what it's worth, we're in the same boat as adiewoo here... a few months ago I looked at a couple of our itemised BT bills and worked out how much they'd cost on Plusnet compared with how much BT charged us, and for our usage, BT worked out to be cheaper - and that price gap will only increase with this latest news.
dvorak
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Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

As we are on the BT anytime plan just about the only chargeable calls we make are to 08X numbers so that is why it is a big thing for me.
It's a shame that there isn't an option of either international calls / free 08X / free caller id, as we don't make many international calls about 1 a year.
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Be3G
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Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

Indeed, it's mainly caller ID that 'did it' for us, I think. We don't use our landline for making many calls as we both have mobiles with enough minutes included; the only calls we do generally make on it are therefore the 08 ones. But caller display is a necessity for us, so once the price for that is added on to Plusnet's packages, they become no better than BT - particularly now we've got this latest news from BT.
Not applicable

Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

Well, this is bad news for PN homephone as the number of companies using these 08 numbers seems to increase by the day.
I have always been very happy with my current service but this has made me think again, although inertia will probably stop me changing - that and the fact that I can usually find alternative numbers via saynoto0870 (don't make many of these calls anyway).
When taking into account the answerphone and caller display PN are a few pounds more expensive than BT. However, the broadband is still (for me) better value.
We need to wait for a response from Plusnet as it is early days.
beano
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Registered: ‎03-12-2007

Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

I was under the impression Ofcom were going to (eventually) ban revenue sharing on 0870 and 0845 numbers (hence the mass migrations to 0844 and the more expensive 0871) and force suppliers to include these numbers in bundles as national calls... (though that would seem to go against their plan for 03 numbers).
No?
techguy
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Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

Before the days of bundles/inclusive minutes which was a trend kicked off by the mobile operators 0845 was a good thing as you paid the same as someone would if they lived in the vicinity of the business you were trying to call.
Trouble now is we are used to not paying for calls (must admit to being a little miffed at paying 25p/min to ring my bank when I've been at work from my mobile as the bank uses 0870 but have recently found a geographic number for them but when I asked them whether there was a geographic number to ring them they lied and told me know but of course I did not tell them had found one!
paulby
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Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

One other thing to watch is that BT's offer, as far as I can see, is only for 0845 and 0870 and NOT for 08x in general.
A lot of companies use 0871, 0844 etc. (Sky for example) which wouldn't be inclusive.
198kHz
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Re: BT cuts the cost of calling 0845 and 0870 to zero for many of its customers

That's my interpretation too, Paul.
I'd like to see ALL 08 numbers totally scrapped.  Angry
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