Orange have proved fine for me, if that's any help!!!

Hi John

Well that's up to you, I would say that Orange are very good at certain things and not quite as good in other areas. I can assure you that at the very least you'll be treated more directly as a customer of DST as they're still quite a small operation so they're not as stretched as Orange for customer service issues.

Jason

Hi Jason,

Many thanks for your reply. I have found on this site a lot of condemnatory reviews of Orange Broadband, and almost 100% praise for DST so am seriously checking out their Option 4 package. If and when I do a deal with them I will report.

John.

Hi Andy,

Your switch sounds just the job to get over my quandary. However things have moved on a bit this end. Having just now found on this site ( I am new to it) the manycondemnatory reviews of Orange Broadband, and the almost 100% fulsome praise for Direct Save Telecom (admittedly only 6 reviews - perhaps not many have heard of it?) I am now seriously minded to go for their Option 4 package, subject to a couple of assurances re single phone, no dialling tricks etc.

They sound so good I wonder where the catch is!?

John.

Sounds like a cracking idea, you shoudl register it with the patent's office or whatever it is called, before someone develops what they have read in your post.

Cat

John

I have built a small switch to overcome this which I and a few colleagues are testing at the moment. If there is enough interest I hope to be selling them from April onwards.

It works like this:

1. You connect your normal BT phone to the switch.
2. You connect your Orange Livebox and your BT line to the switch.
3. Incoming calls to your normal BT number OR your Orange Talk number will ring on the one phone.
4. You can default outgoing calls to either BT or Orange, but choose to switch to the other line by prefixing numbers with # .

I have it set-up so outgoing calls are via Orange to make use of the free calls offer but if I want to use BT I can. This means I keep the BT number and use of 1471, 1571 etc for incoming calls and get free outgoing calls.

Andy.

John H:Do you or anyone out there have any experience of HomePlugs, whereby broadband signal is sent round the house via the mains wiring? Extension here is way beyond recommended 10m max for broadband extension cable, and I gather wireless connections can be tricky to set up especially with thick walls. Reviews on line seem to suggest these plugs really are easy and offer the signal wherever you have a socket..

Hi john

I have never personally used HomePlugs but they should work. You can use an extension cable of over 10 meters for your broadband connections without much of a problem, I personally use a 25 extension cable on mine and I have no problems at all. Remember as well that the electric in your house may all be wired to the ring main and therefore you might end up with the same problem as using a longer extension cable as the signal still needs to go round the house.

Wireless would probably be your best bet, if you can get the wireless router in the middle of the house somewhere you should be able to access it anywhere, even through walls and ceilings you should still be able to connect about 10 meters in any direction without any problems at all.

Hi Jason,

re Orange Broadband Unlimited.

Thanks for your v interesting and helpful reply. Orange have now confirmed their Livebox cannot accept diverted calls. Pity because I am currently on their dial up and would prefer to stay with them (devil you know etc). Clearly my basic requirements of keeping one phone and use of my existing BT number only has ruled them, and maybe others out. I am not interested in multi channel TV offers or mobile phone account. I have a pay as you go Orange mob. used infrequently. Clearly a difficult customer!

BT offer free evening and w/e calls but since we are retired, this is of very limited appeal. I will definitely check out your two suggestions Talk 3 and Direct Save Telecom Option 4. At least I know exactly what questions to ask now.

Carphone Warehouse had a dreadful press and the improved service you mention may still not mean a lot if starting from virtually zero! I have never heard of Direct Save Telecom. I wonder whether anyone out their has experience of them, or whether CW really have got their act together now?

Do you or anyone out there have any experience of HomePlugs, whereby broadband signal is sent round the house via the mains wiring? Extension here is way beyond recommended 10m max for broadband extension cable, and I gather wireless connections can be tricky to set up especially with thick walls. Reviews on line seem to suggest these plugs really are easy and offer the signal wherever you have a socket.

Cheers,

John.

Hi John

Wow this is a bit of a coincidence as I was talking to my dad about this very same situation last night.

He's on Orange Unlimited for the same reasons you're considering moving to it - free unlimited landline calls. However all is not as it seems, they gave him an 0845 number so people can make inbound calls. Unfortunately thus far no one has been able to call the number.

When he spoke to Orange about this they blamed BT, they also suggested like you said that you retain your BT number for inbound calls and call outbound using the VOIP Phone facility via the Livebox modem.

The short answer to your question is - you can't get over this at the moment, I would avoid Orange Unlimited.

If you want unlimited 01 & 02 calls and use the same number I advise you consider deals that use Carrier Pre Select rather than VOIP to make voice calls.

This includes packages such as:

Talk 3 - £8.99 a mth (£11 a mth line rental) - 8Mb / 40Gb broadband - despite the bad press their customer service has improved recently and it's still on paper the cheapest broadband/phone deal on the market

Direct Save Telecom Option 4 - £16.95 a mth (£10.45 a mth line rental) - 8Mb/unlimited broadband - this is the best alternative to Talk Talk at present with the added benefit of no 18 mth contract lock in.

If you're a Vodafone mobile customer, I would consider their Vodafone at Home deal - this gives you unlimited calls, 25% off mobile calls and 8Mb/unlimited broadband too all in for £25 a mth.

I hope this helps?

Cheers

Jason

Currently on Orange dial-up I am contemplating switching to Orange Broadband Unlimited, attracted by unlimited 01 and 02 calls anytime with apparently “ability to make and receive calls as normal using existing phone (walkabout in my case) without need to change existing (BT) number.”

However on closer questioning I find things are not quite as they seem. A phone plugged into the Orange wireless router can make the free calls but those calling me need to call a new number issued by Orange to reach this phone. Alternatively calls to me via my existing BT number require a second phone connected to the BT socket to be received and obviously any outgoing calls using this phone will be charged as usual by BT.

For practical reasons, I am unwilling to forego my existing BT number which seems to mean I must use one phone for incoming calls and another for outgoing (if the free call facility is to be used). Clearly this is impractical and will lead to confusion.

How can I get over this? Could for example all incoming BT calls be diverted to the new Orange number on a permanent basis, so only one phone connected to the Livebox is required? Or perhaps there is another way? I am not a telecommunications engineer!

John H