Telecom's 0161 number

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galron

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#11429 23-Jan-2007 10:13

Corporations are not your friend. Telecom sent me a new promotion today in the mail for their 0161 number.   According to the literature, I can call the US for 8 cents/minute, if I use their special 0161 number as a prefix when I call.

Just by chance, last night I bumped the $$ on my phone card by $50.   I use this card all the time to call the US.   After I bumped it up, I calculated what I was paying per minute.   It was 3.37 cents/minute. And, if you include the fact that they gave me an additional $4 worth of time as a bonus for buying the $50 worth of time, the price dropped to 3.13 cents/minute.

calculations:

$55.85 on the card gets me 1657 min, therefore 55.85/1657 = 3.37 cents/minute
or if we take away the free $4 worth
$51.85 actually spent gets me 1657 minutes, therefore 51.85/1657 - 3.13 cents/minute

My phone card is the Good Call card which anyone can walk into any postal shop in New Zealand and buy.   So that's 8 cents/minute vs. 3.13 cents/minute. And what do you get for spending the extra 4.87 cents/minute? Well, you get to have the calls listed on your phone bill *and* you get to avoid having to enter that big horrible PIN number in when you make a call.

And Telecom sends this offer out like they are doing the NZ public a big favor/service.   Jeez!

sbiddle

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#58566 23-Jan-2007 10:53

Welcome to the free market. At least you're aware of cheaper alternatives than using Telecom.

I only pay A10c for flat rate untimed calls anywhere in Australia - no calling card or phone company in NZ can offer me that. There are VoIP providers I've played with that can terminate calls in the USA for roughly NZ 1.9c per minute all with perfect call quality on a good VoIP capable internet connection.

paradoxsm

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#59069 28-Jan-2007 18:19

Kind of a shame you can't get a good VoIP connection here, my attempts have been fruitless,, incoming is good, outgoing is shocking, I wonder if "wired country" is still around? that worked excellent

grant_k

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#59079 28-Jan-2007 21:43

paradoxsm: ...incoming is good, outgoing is shocking,

What Upload speed do you have on your broadband connection Paradoxsm?

I suspect that may be the cause of your problem.

paradoxsm

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#59178 29-Jan-2007 20:11

yes, 128k, sad i know but changing now involves going on one of these "traffic managed" plans which penalize your speed for heavy downloads, my usage is super-heavy for 2 days then none for 10.

Currently on iSlug 3.5/128 10GB plan, I really should change...

Who can suggest a plan which allows 2MB upload/512k download speeds and about 20GB data? I have looked without any joy.

grant_k

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#59188 29-Jan-2007 22:06

paradoxsm: Who can suggest a plan which allows 2MB upload/512k download speeds and about 20GB data? I have looked without any joy.

I don't know of any plans with 2Mbps Upload speed unless you're on TCL Cable or perhaps WiMAX wireless.

You do mean 2Mbps UPLOAD don't you?

That sort of speed isn't necessary for any of the VoIP systems I've tried. But your existing plan with 128kbps Upload is marginal. In my experience, Full-Speed Upload (500-600kbps) is definitely an advantage, especially on ADSL.

Mithster18

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#59276 30-Jan-2007 20:41

paradoxsm: I wonder if "wired country" is still around? that worked excellent

I think so:

http://www.wiredcountry.co.nz/

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

robscovell

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#60908 15-Feb-2007 14:59

paradoxsm: Kind of a shame you can't get a good VoIP connection here, my attempts have been fruitless,, incoming is good, outgoing is shocking, I wonder if "wired country" is still around? that worked excellent

Hi paradoxsm,

What voip provider are you with?

I work for and use this company: http://www.coms.com/

They are UK-based. You get a UK phone number free of charge. Their outgoing calls are cheaper than Skype. Their sound quality is far higher than Skype, even using a low-bandwidth codec.

I use their service over Go Large and I get perfectly OK sound quality. (I use a low bandwidth codec: G729.)

They have a very robust set of high-end servers connected to the UK backbone in a server farm in Docklands, east London.

Their focus is the business market, but they're not picky about residential users signing up ...

One caveat: you can't use the online signup to sign up from New Zealand. However, if you email support [{AT}] coms DOT com saying that you want to sign up from NZ, they will help you.

Rob

sbiddle

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#60911 15-Feb-2007 15:11

What sort of numbers do you get for free? I am guessing premium rate 0845 or 0871 ranges?

tonyhughes

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#60917 15-Feb-2007 16:11

galron: Corporations are not your friend.

They sure arent! And as a shareholder** of the one in discussion, im glad they are looking out for me, before looking out for you :-)

(Not in a nasty way, but from a "why would i invest in a company if they werent going to try and make money for me?" sort of way)

:-)

(**Minor minor minor tiny shareholder even)

robscovell

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#60923 15-Feb-2007 17:22

sbiddle: What sort of numbers do you get for free? I am guessing premium rate 0845 or 0871 ranges?

No, not limited to those at all. They have thousands of free local numbers from London, Edinburgh, Manchester, Brighton and loads of other towns. Check out the signup page: https://join.coms.com/coms_signup/screen1.html

Although I work for them on the technical side, I don't get any brownie points for recommending them. I just think they're good. THis is this solid, respectable side of voip, an industry with a lot of dodgy operators.

Rob

robscovell

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#60925 15-Feb-2007 17:40

paradoxsm:

voip

You could also get someone in the US to sign you up for the Mobiboo Home Buffet. You get a year's calls to US landlines for USD 29.95. No extra call charges. You also get a free US number, although the locations are a bit odd (rural Kansas and places like that).

It runs over the same kit as coms.com -- Mobiboo are resellers. You can download a 'dashboard' which is a bit like the Skype interface.

http://www.mobiboo.us

There's a UK version too: http://www.mobiboo.uk that gives you a UK mobile number.

HOWEVER, you can only sign up IN THE US, so you need to get a friend over there to sign up for you with their credit card.

Rob

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paradoxsm

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#60947 15-Feb-2007 22:18

At least Telecom are trying, That 0161 service has been running for years, possibly as a beta-test of cheaper "alternative backhaul" and more recently, VoIP. It has been explained to me as "cheap lines" "staticky calls" "budget service" "unguaranteed calls" and other scary descriptions. It's pretty reliable though I have found in the times I have used it, never a disconnection but one or two drop-outs and speech garblers (In about 50 calls from 2000 - 2006)

I unofficially called it "ValueChat 0161" and No long-call caps apply.

Obviously VoIP can offer better rates again (often unlimited calls for $X.XX) but it's up to you to change numbers, get other IDD's and the standard unreliability geek-head stuff, I must admist my run with VoIP has been good but your might vary, it also includes new equipment which comes at cost. I have iTalk which is $10 a month with an auckland number and free local calls that acts as a landline & can call national landlines for 5c per min

I Love VoIP and the fact I can get "local presence" in any particular country and basically "remote in" to that exchange from anywhere in the world, it's a fun toy.

superbanana

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#61051 16-Feb-2007 21:25

well, maybe it is cheaper to use VoIP, cetainly it is the cheapest to do at da momnet.

But think this way, VoIp need u to have Broadband, for customer who do not have broadband, to be able to use VoIP they need that to be setup first, therefore, think about the total cost.

juha

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#61070 17-Feb-2007 10:31

Yes, 0161 is Telecom VoIP....

Juha