See the following for details:

http://www.homechoice.co.uk/media/talkplansnov04.pdf

and:

http://www.homechoice.co.uk/yourquestions_phone.html

Free Evening & Weekend calls are included in the standard TV/broadband package price at no extra cost (even for existing customers - yay!). Anytime costs from £5-£9 extra depending on which package you subscribe to.

It's looking good , now all I'm waiting for is the chance to stop sending BT my 10.50 a month (which is apparently coming 'early in 2005')....

Having looked at their prices, they are even cheaper than other providers like OneTel. What an excellent package. By the time this is active the free £20 credit I got for joining OneTel will have run out so in the time I've been with them, they won't have taken any money from me at all!

don't forget though, that all these prices only last for THREE months, then it doubles!!

That only refers to the special offer package prices for new customers. The fact that it's no extra on top of the HomeChoice subscription is what is so good.

Why would I want the HC phone service?

£0.05/min to US and continental Europe is by no means competitive. I make those calls for £0.02/min through Tiscali (via my BT landline), I use free VoIP via Skype and dial to landlines via SkypeOut for €0.02/min.

I have a realiable landline service from BT, whereas HC has not yet shown to be capable of providing a reliable service in any area.

I'd still have to pay the £10.50 BT line rental, so what do I get? Free local evening calls, uncompetitive call rates, and an unknown service quality.

Gimme a break; I'd rather meet my mate down the road in the local and talk over a pint.

What am I missing?

Isn't it a bit obvious? Free evening and weekend calls for no monthly fee to all standard UK landlines. That's cheaper than €0.02 a minute, and there's nothing stopping you using that for daytime calls, or dialling a prefix to get cheaper international calls. I can't see reliablitly being an issue either as the service is probably provided by an established CPS provider anyway. In my experience, Tiscali and "reliable" aren't two things I associate. Also, IMHO most people can't be bothered with VoIP - I want to be able to pick up my phone and make a call, not faff around with my computer.

The trick is to combine services so that you end up paying little or nothing for your calls. Different combinations will suit different people, and I think this offer will suit a lot of people quite nicely.

Over the last few months I've spent absoultely nothing on calls from my landline as OneTel have provided me with free weekend calls, and £20 credit just for signing up. It's a bit like the 0% deals on credit cards, really - be a CPS tart!

Incorrect. Read the HC FAQ - free calls related to landlines with area codes starting with 01 and 02, only. Doesn't include calling your mother-in-law up North. Plus, you still have to pay the BT line rental. So, you ask me to give up my reliable BT service for an unknown new one on grounds of saving... £3 per month? No way.

Maybe my phone habits aren't average, though.

Just to be pedantic, 02 is London, 01 is UK outside London (including up North!)

But all UK geographical numbers start 01 or 02 as set down in the National Numbering Plan, see http://www.ofcom.org.uk/licensing_nu..._plan_0904.pdf (page 12)

No - 020 is london

023 is Portsmouth and Southampton

024 is Coventry

028 is N.I.

029 is Cardiff

There may be more - I can't remember.

The deal appears to be 01 and 02, which cover ALL UK landlines.

I read their press release, which says it is being provided using CPS. This means it goes through the traditional phone network, not the broadband network. It should be just as reliable as BT's service.

It looks to me to be a great deal.

I stand corrected.

Bzzt.. VoIP doesn't necessarily mean faffing on your computer. Yes, Skype does, true, but you can get real, true IP-based phones and adapters to allow you to plug "real" phones in as IP phones.

If you're wanting to save a few 5p's on calls to the local curry take away then you probably wont want to pay the £50 for such a device, but my point is that voip is not just faffing on a PC.

As a CPS deal, the HC figures don't look half bad. But their charges are still significanlty higher than the £0.02p/min you can pay to call pretty much any landline in the world via a VoIP account. (still not as good as my £0.00p/min VoIP deal though!)

The real break through will be when BT have to allow you to shift away from paying them line rental... then the CPS and VOIP deals really will get interesting.. Nice to see HC elluding to this on their Q&A list...clearly it's something they are wanting to offer when they can.

Cheaper than both BT and ntl.

Skype doesn't mean faffing around neither, not for me anyway: I use Skype on a day-to-day basis for long-distance calls and conference calls. Excellent quality for free calls to continenal Europe, the US, the far East.

Granted, for an evening chat with friends I prefer the sofa and a regular handheld phone, too. That doesn't mean there's no place for PC-based VoIP.

Haven't seen it mentioned in this thread and I don't remember it being in the information on the HC web site, so I thought I'd add that this service isn't available yet (despite all the advertising). Spoke to HC yesterday and they said right now they were just logging calls to see how many people were interested. The service is planned (i.e. not definitive) to start on Jan 1 2005 and we'll probably have to register at some point - they said watch out for more mailshots and the HC website.
Oh, and there's still no word on when MPEG4 is due - grrr...

http://www.homechoice.co.uk/customer..._freecalls.htm says from the beginning of December though I suppose it's possible for things like that to slip.

Having filled in the form on the HomeChoice website, it now says available from January - slight inconsistancy on their site!

Well the website now says from early November and invites existing customers to call in.

Still - from what I hear this will require existing users to sign a new contract. No doubt a 12 month one.

At first I was mightily peeved that HC was once again offering great deals to new customers only but given this extra paperwork I am prepared to sit and wait.

International call costs do not look that great (compared to OneTel for example).

I find the rates pretty good. Some international rates are higher and some are lower. But with HC you get free evening and weekend calls also. This costs £3.99 with Onetel.

I noticed the other day that one of the other CPS providers already includes the line rental now (Homecall). Not seen anyone else do this yet - and I would've thought all of them would've launched that as soon as possible esp. now that BT have forced everyone onto BT Together so I don't know how Homecall have managed to do it.

I called homechoice about free calls. For existing customers the offer will be available in the new year, apparently.
They said that information will be sent out.

Why are you all complaining?

You subscribe to HC for TV and Broadband. Right, and you're happy to pay what you're paying for those services. Now, for no extra cost, they want to give you free evening and weekend phone calls, local and national.

Stop complaining. If you don't like it, they won't force it on you. Personally, the quicker HC run out nationwide, the quicker I ditch NTL.

Not quite... don't forget 0845 numbers - you'll still have to pay for those and loads of businesses and customer services use that code now... including Homechoice!

It's actually possible to speak to customer care using the 0800 sales number on the HomeChoice website.

For lots of other numbers, try http://www.saynoto0870.com