BT Broadband Talk

It's a VOIP service.
We have a BT line because we need an internet connection. Never use it
to make phone calls. Just the monthly line rental and caller display,
now free.
We had a Onetel account for calls and latterly used 18866 for 90% of
calls.

Rabbit...

But don't you have to have BT Broadband ? That's more expensive to me than

datasmog...

No. I use PlusNet.
Any old ADSL service will do.

Rabbit...

Very confusing then 'cos on

All you need is:
BT Broadband
A standard touch-tone phone

datasmog...

It always pays to read the whole page :-)

Rabbit...

True that's usually where you find the small print and the disclaimers :-)

"If you use another broadband service
Save on calls
BT Broadband Talk can work across any internet connection. "

That's a bit broad in the statement department, I think you would have
trouble making it work with a dial up modem, but if you follow the links
you will find:
"Available for Cable and non - BT Broadband customers as well "

Rabbit...

OK thanks ray.

my BT line, plus Plusnet plus using 18899 ( and a few other carrier
preselect numbers depending on the destination) and BT Broadband offers me
less features I like/want than Plusnet

This BT VOIP service for Ł7 a month gives us free calls to UK landlines
(some obvious exceptions like premium rate numbers) 24/7. Reduced rates
to UK mobiles and international calls. With no connection charge.
So yes, free calls, for Ł7 a month. [1]
International rates are less than Onetel, 18866, Skype or Gizmo.

Here's how it sets up.
BT send you a "Welcome Pack" which consists of a little router, which
they call a Telephone Adaptor, a short length of ethernet cable, a
length of standard telephone cable, a little booklet and a cd.
You connect the Telephone Adaptor to your ADSL router with the ethernet
cable, plug the phone cable into your telephone wall socket (via a
microfilter) and plug your bog standard telephone in to the Telephone
Adaptor.

The phone cable into wall socket enables you to still make conventional
calls if your adsl service goes awol.

And here's where the fun starts.
You now have to connect your computer to the Telephone Adaptor with an
ethernet cable in order to kick the whole thing into action. Or as BT
says, Configure the Service. This cannot be done over wireless.
Ok if you have a laptop, but if your router is in another room,
upstairs, downstairs, whatever, and all you have is a desktop PC on a
wifi LAN you will need a long run of cat5 cable.

So I put the Powerbook on the sofa (our ADSL wireless router lives
behind the sofa in the lounge, where the BT engineers thoughtfully put
the master telephone socket), plugged in the ethernet cable to the
Telephone Adaptor, put the CD in the drive and, woohoo, it mounted on
the desktop. Double clicking the "Mac" icon, yes what a surprise, opened
up Microsoft Internet Explorer. :-(

Oh well, carry on.

Here dear reader I have to explain that this can only be set up on-line.
You get an additional VOIP telephone number with this service, plus a
password. These bits of information are used to set up the service.

IE connects to a BT website into which you have put the VOIP telephone
number and password. Press the Go button and a new window pops up. Which
says something like "Sorry there has been an error, we can't process
your request, sod off Mac user". Or words to that effect.

All this does is connect to another web page which activates the service
and sets up the Telephone Adaptor remotely. Why it doesn't work on a Mac
is anyones guess, certainly the BT drone I got on the help number hadn't
a clue. "We don't support Macs" was all he said.

At first I thought it was an Internet Explorer problem, but Firefox and
Safari didn't work either.

You can't log into the Telephone Adaptor, which has an ip number, via a
browser interface until the service is activated.
Catch 22?

Almost. The second BT drone I got had some clue enough to go away and
ask someone else for advice and between us we kicked it into action by
directly accessing another BT webpage with a combination of URL and
Telephone Adaptor IP number.

So what's it Like?
It's alright. It works. They say call quality is on a par with mobile
phones. It's not always that good, but perfectly acceptable. It does
vary a bit depending on how busy your ADSL line is. If you're
downloading a movie or the latest Windows security patch, it may suffer
a bit. But so far I haven't had any complaints from people I've called.

I'm using a DECT cordless phone which may explain the patchy quality.
When anyone calls us on the landline number the DECT phone rings as
usual, as do all the other phones in the house. If I'm making a call
over VOIP and someone calls the landline number, I get the usual call
waiting signal through the DECT handset, and all the other phones ring
as usual. So I can take the incoming call on either phone.
And of course I can still make outgoing calls on the landline number at
standard BT rates, or use 18866.

So hopefully this is going to save me some dosh.
12 Month minimum contract to get the Ł7/month free calls option.

[1] Maximum call duration for free is 1 hour. After that there is a per
minute charge, or you can disconnect and immediately redial for another
free hour.