[crazzy kopite]

My parents have been with BT for years and get a bill every 3 months but I think they can get cheaper elsewhere as their bills are normally around £170 although mum does phone Italy and Canada a couple of times within the 3 months.
I have noticed Sky will let you keep you existing number and for £15 a month you get unlimited call day and night and unlimited calls to 20 international numbers of your choice. Sounds too good to be true, is it really that cheap or are there hidden costs ?
Sky.com - Sky Products>Phone>Prices and Options>Sky Talk Unlimited

I have broadband with sky I pay £10 a month, £10 a month for HD and have the full package well apart from the adult movies .

[the whistler]

I don't know how the costs compare with BT, but a couple of things to bear in mind. You are still using BT's landline, you pay Sky and they pay BT. If you have a fault on the line you have to deal with Sky, you can't report the fault to BT. Sky then liase with Bt to get the fault resolved.

[nheather]

You can choose to keep your line rental with BT or have Sky manage it for you.

I think you save 50p per month doing it through Sky but if you have a fault you have to report it through Sky. Keep it with BT then you can report to BT. Take your choice.

Like most of these deals Sky is cheap providing you observe the rules. If you stray out of the normal 'free' service then you probably find the prices are higher than BT.

Examples are

Calls to premium numbers
Calls to mobiles
Calls to international not covered by the free or inclusive scheme
Extending a single call duration beyond 60 minutes

But for vast majority of people the SKy service will be a lot cheaper.

Cheers,

Nigel

[Leej]

After making some enquires I'm thinking of changing back to BT from Sky.

For £16 and some pence a month with BT you get free calls day and night, free 0845 and 0870 calls, free caller display, free 1571, Mobile phone saver.

Sky was OK when you could dial 1280 before the number you are calling so that it was charged through BT instead of Sky. Sky knocked this on the head which made some 08 numbers more expensive and also caller display and 1571 chargeable with BT.

Don't know what deals BT offer for intentional calls though.

[Miss Chief]

Sky's Talk Unlimited package is £5 a month and gives free daytime, evening and weekend calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers, free calls to the top 20 international landline destinations, although calls to mobiles in the US and Canada count as free calls also. For the OP, Canada and Italy are included. The usual free for an hour then charged or ahng up and redial applies.

Calls to mobiles are also 25% cheaper than BT's Option 1 package. Sky Talk line rental is £10pm, a 50p saving on BT's DD price but if you pay your bill when it arrives than it can be as much as £2.50 cheaper per month AFAIK.

Should you have need to call sky then calls are free on Sky talk. Haven't read anything about 0844 calls being free on BT.

[kevandalice]

Originally Posted by leej

After making some enquires I'm thinking of changing back to BT from Sky.

For £16 and some pence a month with BT you get free calls day and night, free 0845 and 0870 calls, free caller display, free 1571, Mobile phone saver.

Sky was OK when you could dial 1280 before the number you are calling so that it was charged through BT instead of Sky. Sky knocked this on the head which made some 08 numbers more expensive and also caller display and 1571 chargeable with BT.

Don't know what deals BT offer for intentional calls though.

I guess you haven't heard of SAYNOTO0870.COM - Non-Geographical Alternative Telephone Numbers

[Bilbob]

Originally Posted by kevandalice

I guess you haven't heard of SAYNOTO0870.COM - Non-Geographical Alternative Telephone Numbers

Whilst SNT0870 is handy, it doesn't list all numbers, and many don't go to the right place, so being able to ring those numbers for free, is very handy, time saving, and just, well, easier!

[Leej]

Originally Posted by kevandalice

I guess you haven't heard of SAYNOTO0870.COM - Non-Geographical Alternative Telephone Numbers

I have and coincidently I recommended it to someone on a thread yesterday.

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by Skytech

Sky's Talk Unlimited package is £5 a month and gives free daytime, evening and weekend calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers, free calls to the top 20 international landline destinations.

I didn't know that and it will teach me to read the junk mail instead of chucking it away unread.

Our "house line" is with Sky and my monthly bill for calls is normally less than £1 as we don't use it much. I have a seperate line with Virgin in my home office that is used much more but as I have family in Australia and make calls to companies in Spain it would save me quite a bit to upgrade my home line by paying an extra £5 per month and using that line for the overseas calls.

[Miss Chief]

Ian I'm pleased to say Calls to Oz and Spain are included. Don't forget though, it's landline calls only! :Smashin:

[THE AMATUER]

Originally Posted by crazzy kopite

My parents have been with BT for years and get a bill every 3 months but I think they can get cheaper elsewhere as their bills are normally around £170 although mum does phone Italy and Canada a couple of times within the 3 months.
I have noticed Sky will let you keep you existing number and for £15 a month you get unlimited call day and night and unlimited calls to 20 international numbers of your choice. Sounds too good to be true, is it really that cheap or are there hidden costs ?
Sky.com - Sky Products>Phone>Prices and Options>Sky Talk Unlimited

I have broadband with sky I pay £10 a month, £10 a month for HD and have the full package well apart from the adult movies .

I recently got a letter from Sky informing me they are adding £5 a month to all its broadband packages very soon. However if you sign up to their phone package "Sky Talk" they will keep your broadband at its current price for one year. Also if you agree to switch your line rental from BT to Sky they will give you reduced line rental for 6 months. Plus Skys line rental is £1.50 a month cheaper than Sky anyway if you get paper billed by BT. You also get billed monthly for the line rental, which is better than BT's every 3 months.

OR you can stick with BT and get all your calls through Primus. All landline calls are free all weekend and from either 7pm-7am or 8pm-8am Monday to Friday (cant remember the hours off the top of my head). Primus don't charge a monthly fee either and their call charges are cheaper than either BT or SKY.

I normally use "Say No To 0870" if I need to contact any companies as legally companies have to have a normal landline contact number. They keep them quiet for obvious money generating reasons !!!

[Mac Man]

I believe there's a pretty low cap on bandwidth for the cheapest broadband (well there was last time I looked) which was around 2GB a month.

Useless in my house with the amount of downloading my kids do. A 750MB Xbox demo is a regular occurence . Nevermind the amount of TV they watch over the web.

My dad switched to SKY recently as it saves him a few quid over his previous cable deal. And he thinks SKY+ is now the dogs knobs.

[Digger]

Originally Posted by THE AMATUER

I normally use "Say No To 0870" if I need to contact any companies as legally companies have to have a normal landline contact number. They keep them quiet for obvious money generating reasons !!!

If you call their 0870 number and ask for the corresponding landline number are they legally obliged to tell you over the phone, and if they refuse or deny all knowledge are they breaking the Law? Can this be applied to 0844/5 numbers also?

[Knyght_byte]

Originally Posted by Digger

If you call their 0870 number and ask for the corresponding landline number are they legally obliged to tell you over the phone, and if they refuse or deny all knowledge are they breaking the Law? Can this be applied to 0844/5 numbers also?

I work for a company who provide energy, mobile, broadband and telephone (wholesale line rental or just calls), we removed our 020 complaint landline recently as the requirement for it legally by Ofgem was removed.

As for telephone companies, why would they legally need to provide an geographic landline in the first place? Its not a necessity in life to have a landline or BB connection. Even if they did provide a geographic landline, they'd just raise their prices to take it in to account. No offence but I dont think people realise just how expensive a call centre is to run. Even small ones of 40 staff plus 4 supervisors cost around £750,000+ to run a year and thats just the wages, nevermind the running costs of PC's, Tech support etc.

Would you rather they provided a number you can call for free and they increase their overall product price? or have a lower product price and only pay when you actually need to call them? I'd rather the second thankyou

[Miss Chief]

Originally Posted by Mac Man

I believe there's a pretty low cap on bandwidth for the cheapest broadband (well there was last time I looked) which was around 2GB a month.

Useless in my house with the amount of downloading my kids do. A 750MB Xbox demo is a regular occurence . Nevermind the amount of TV they watch over the web.

My dad switched to SKY recently as it saves him a few quid over his previous cable deal. And he thinks SKY+ is now the dogs knobs.

The free package, Sky BB 'base' only has a 2Gb allowance and a max of 2meg download speed. What do you expect for free? The middle package, 'mid' (great name huh?) has up to 8meg speed if your line will support it and a 40GB usage allowance which is more than enough for most people. the 'Max' package, which I'm on has a truly unlimited download allowance and up to 16Meg speed. my exchange is one about 400 yeards away and my router is currently connected at:
DownStream Connection Speed 15323 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 764 kbps

So it pretty speedy! This is £10 per month, still cheaper than some providers charge for 2 meg with throttling and shaping etc!

[Knyght_byte]

Originally Posted by Skytech

The free package, Sky BB 'base' only has a 2Gb allowance and a max of 2meg download speed. What do you expect for free? The middle package, 'mid' (great name huh?) has up to 8meg speed if your line will support it and a 40GB usage allowance which is more than enough for most people. the 'Max' package, which I'm on has a truly unlimited download allowance and up to 16Meg speed. my exchange is one about 400 yeards away and my router is currently connected at:
DownStream Connection Speed 15323 kbps
UpStream Connection Speed 764 kbps

So it pretty speedy! This is £10 per month, still cheaper than some providers charge for 2 meg with throttling and shaping etc!

Thought Sky used TalkTalk (through one of their subsidiaries like Opal and Mistral)? If they do then they are traffic shaped and throttled at peak times.

Far as I was aware BE (part of 02 now) are the only ones who dont do that yet.

[evilgenius]

Is Sky ADSL or ADSL Max?

[THE AMATUER]

Originally Posted by Knyght_byte

I work for a company who provide energy, mobile, broadband and telephone (wholesale line rental or just calls), we removed our 020 complaint landline recently as the requirement for it legally by Ofgem was removed.

As for telephone companies, why would they legally need to provide an geographic landline in the first place? Its not a necessity in life to have a landline or BB connection. Even if they did provide a geographic landline, they'd just raise their prices to take it in to account. No offence but I dont think people realise just how expensive a call centre is to run. Even small ones of 40 staff plus 4 supervisors cost around £750,000+ to run a year and thats just the wages, nevermind the running costs of PC's, Tech support etc.

Would you rather they provided a number you can call for free and they increase their overall product price? or have a lower product price and only pay when you actually need to call them? I'd rather the second thankyou

I didn't realise the landline thing was removed, that will probably put an end to the 'say no to 0870' site. I don't think they have to legally supply people with it but my understanding was they needed to register one. On the 0870 site for example Sky's landline or free lines constantly change when people get wind of them, thats why there are regular posts from people giving the new number out. If it wasn't a legal requirement why do they bother to keep changing it they would just scrap them all together. Maybe its something to do with where the company is registered, I don't know.

I think people realise the costs of call centres, thats why most are outsourced to India, as a call centre staff there only earn about £2,000 a year. The gripe for most is you are kept waiting for stupid amounts of time, and the normal key presses like 'press 1' then 'press 2' don't appear to mean anything because you end up being transferred (in Skys case anyway !!!) or speaking to the same people no matter what keys you press.

I agree they pass the costs on for 0800 numbers, as BT will do with their new free 0845 service but personally I would prefer a free number than not.

[Mr Incredible]

Originally Posted by evilgenius

Is Sky ADSL or ADSL Max?

Depends on the exchange conversion rollout by Sky. Some areas are Max others not. They have an online checker for speed on your number.

HAving received the blurb on free 0870 and 0845 numbers with BT, I also read in PCW this month that O2 customers are being offered uncapped 20Mbit connections for just under a tenner a month. Might be tempted....