Well its begun.... The begining of the end....

Received an email this morning advising that they are now transfering onetel customers to Talktalk. At the moment the email suggests that there will be no changes to the service. It claims:

"You will continue to stay on the same tariff, however from the 1st March 2006 you'll be able to call any other TalkTalk customer for FREE*FOREVER"

So I wonder how long it will be before the prices start to go up, and customers are shoehorned off the current tarrifs?

Oh well at least we can collect Nectar Points now...

With reference to the changeover, would you be able to post the details on this forum minus your personal details as I am on Onetel TotalUKTalk and Onetel Broadband. I am indeed very interested in this changeover. There appears to be no communication from TalkTalk whatsover - it's a pretty poor show, if you pardon the pun!

Brooke Bond

I totally agree, there has been no communication from OneTel/TalkTalk and am very interested to hear how the changes will affect onetel customers like me

I've switched over to Primus Planet Talk. Im getting free offpeak calls to all UK landlines after 6 and weekends for NO FEE. That was through Uswitch. Also, if your with tiscali broadband, pay an extra £4.00 (so thats £19.99pm) for 2meg and all your calls to landlines anytime free.

Thats Tomasti's hot tip of the day anyway lol!

Well, you can always switch to Bulldog owned by Cable and Wireless.

They offer:

Free calling features
Free calls between bulldog customers
Cheap local and national calls
Cheap broadband

Furthermore, have you looked at Telewest,NTL and Wight Cable?

Telewest benefits:

Talk weekends package:
Offers free unlimited weekends calls to local and national landlines. Local/national weekday calls:3p per min and Local/National weeknight calls: 2p per minute

Price including line rental: £10.50 per month

Telewest Blueyonder 2MB internet: £14.99 per month

Telewest's Supreme Digital TV package if taken with Telephone: £17.50 per month.

Telewest's calling features: £1.50 each or £3.50 for all of them.

Alternative for unlimited calls at anytime try Telewest's talk unlimited plan which gives you unlimited calls and requirement to redial after 60 mins. This is £25.50 per month including line rental.


NTL benefits:

Talk Unlimited local:

Unlimited local calls for £12.99 per month including line rental and add Talk Mobile were you can make calls to mobiles for as little as 2p per minute.

Calling features: £1.75

Other services: Similar to Telewest.

If you with BT Broadband you can join there BT broadband talk.
Make calls through your BT Broadband connection and save! BT Broadband Talk is an easy way to make and receive calls through your broadband connection - all you need is a normal phone and a BT Broadband connection.

You can choose between the following calling plans:

Evening and Weekend - FREE when
ordered with BT Broadband
Option 4* (just £2 a month, on
Options 1,2 & 3)
Anytime calls plan from just £7
a month.
BT line or similar required.

Calls to 56 International
destinations from just 1.25 ppm
*Applies to calls under one hour in length.

Darren

Isn't this BT's name for VOIP?

You can use VOIP services over a NTL world or Blueyonder(Telewest) broadband connection too, in fact you can use any broadband provider. I Would check with different providers before choosing BT and then you can combine the annual VOIP charges and monthly broadband costs in one and then compare it to BT's Broadband Talk service.

I almost forgot about this thread that I created. I noticed the Line Rental is creeping up now on TalkTalk. I'm sure it used to be £9.49 with online billing discount of 50p. I checked one of my accounts today ad it's now £9.99 with the discount.

Hmmm.... It begins....

Line Rental has gone up to £11 a month on paper bills but now includes 1571 basic.

On Talk 1 they have withdrawn free weekend calls for life.

I think this must be for original TalkTalk customers. I was with onetel and I've only seen an increase of 50p to £9.99 on todays bill.

The minute it reaches £11 fore me, I'll jump ship.

I've been a Talk 1 customer for 3 years and I expect the 'free weekend calls for life' to be honoured on all future bills or I'll raise merry hell!

Yep. Expect to get that for life.

However, if you now want the free broadband offer, I expect they'll force you onto their new plans.

Simon

Having read people's comments on TT broadband I wouldn't touch it with the proverbial bargepole!

I'm very happy with 1899.com, as all UK 01 and 02 calls cost a 3p connection charge, all day and all night.

I use 18185 for mobile calls (5p per minute weekdays, 2p weekends) and really enjoy chatting with my cousin on her mobile in Wisconsin for 0.5p (half a pence) per minute.

After reading about it on moneysavingexpert.com, I bought a multi service programmable V4 smart dialler box from Orchid Electronics for about £15 and it takes care of all the routing of the various calls to whichever services I've chosen, without me needing to dial codes or remember which to use for what .

I used to work for Mercury Communications when these 'smart sockets' first came out and they were very unreliable, but they have come a long way since then. They will even override CPS services, so you don't have to give up that if you're stuck with a contract.

I have BT Together Option3, and BT Broadband Option 1 and am quite happy to pay their price.

Why?

1) Most of the time, I get through to someone in the UK who can deal with my call without it lasting in excess of 2 hours or getting cut off.

2) Their broadband is second to none. No problems at all.

3) If the line goes wrong, they'll fix it ASAP. Something you don't get on WLR.

Yes it costs more, but you get what you pay for.

You pay a much lower deal, there has to be repercussions somewhere -

1) Outsourcing calls outside the UK
2) Greater contention on Broadband
3) Lower quality of calls.

I'm not pointing the finger at anyone in particular *COUGH* *1899* *18866* *COUGH* *COUGH* but some networks call quality leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm happy to get one bil from BT for all of it. And to be honest, I'm happy with the £42 a month I'm paying for it.

Simon

PS: I don't work for BT. I work for Orange.