voipcheap.co.uk rates

Just checking the ever fluctuating betamax prices and I see
voipcheap.co.uk is right down at the cheapest UK mobile rates (at the
moment).
I can't see on the site anywhere but is there a connection charge which
might skew things back?

Cheers
Pete
--
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"www.GymRatZ.co.uk" <0845.86.86.888@GymRatZ.Gym.Equipment> wrote in message news:itamca$bg4$1@dont-email.me...
> Just checking the ever fluctuating betamax prices and I see
> voipcheap.co.uk is right down at the cheapest UK mobile rates (at the
> moment).
> I can't see on the site anywhere but is there a connection charge which
> might skew things back?
>
> Cheers
> Pete
> --
> http://www.GymRatZ.co.uk - Fitness+Gym Equipment.
> http://www.bodysolid-gym-equipment.co.uk
> http://www.trade-price-supplements.co.uk
> http://www.water-rower.co.uk

Yes I noticed that last week and have already decided to revive my old voipcheap.co.uk
account when my smartvoip credit runs out. I have about 7 euros left, and with my usage
it may take some weeks.
Just in case anyome does not know there are two betamax clones with the name voipcheap,
and it's the .co.uk one we are talking about, not the .com one.

Also, if you attempt to buy credit using the same Paypal account that you have associated with
an existing clone, the payment will bounce back into your account
Short of setting up a fresh PP account, and you won't be able to link the same card to it,
you can delete the existing Betamax account, the feature is well hidden on the website:

other options / customer service / account / delete my account

(BTDTGTTS)

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

On 15/06/2011 19:00, Graham. wrote:

> Yes I noticed that last week and have already decided to revive my old voipcheap.co.uk
> account when my smartvoip credit runs out. I have about 7 euros left, and with my usage
> it may take some weeks.
> Just in case anyome does not know there are two betamax clones with the name voipcheap,
> and it's the .co.uk one we are talking about, not the .com one.
>
> Also, if you attempt to buy credit using the same Paypal account that you have associated with
> an existing clone, the payment will bounce back into your account
> Short of setting up a fresh PP account, and you won't be able to link the same card to it,
> you can delete the existing Betamax account, the feature is well hidden on the website:
>
> other options / customer service / account / delete my account
>
> (BTDTGTTS)

I have now set up yet another betamax account for this one and cancelled
my auto top-up for smsListo (I think) so... once I get the "These bl***y
phones aren't working" notification I can kick it into action... until
the next price wiggle..

:¬)

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"Anthony R. Gold" <not-for-mail@ahjg.co.uk> wrote in message news:8p6iv65haata71e9dma4t5m3jekmqm5pdg@4ax.com...
>I want to send a string of digits after establishing a VoipCheap connection.
> Is there any alternative to pecking out each of the digits on-by-one into the
> screen keypad of the application, such as say chain-dialing multiple contacts
> or adding a pause plus the following group into just the one contact, etc?
>
> Thanks.

Like most people here I use a hardware phone to make calls via Betamax so can use
the phone's memory.
I tried to find pause functionality in one of the Betamax softphones but could not find any.
However...
There is a generic free softphone available called X-Lite that will process pauses and post-dial strings
http://www.counterpath.com/x-lite.html

Put your account details in and store the number followed by one or more "P"s for each half second pause,
followed by the post-dial string with a semicolon at the end.
https://support.counterpath.com/default.asp?W366



--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

>> Put your account details in and store the number followed by one or more "P"s for each half second pause,
>> followed by the post-dial string with a semicolon at the end.
>> https://support.counterpath.com/default.asp?W366
>
> That works a treat. Setting up a remote call diversion under BT's Smart
> Divert requires the accurate entry of 33 digits after the intermediate dial
> tone and I was finding that tricky using point and click. Many thanks.

Now all you need is a mouse macro recorder and a timed windows task to automate the entire
affair and the world's your chopped+fried :-)

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

"Anthony R. Gold" <not-for-mail@ahjg.co.uk> wrote in message news:2r6kv6lfscmropmc5necker7rpmir985ob@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 16 Jun 2011 01:59:30 +0100, "Graham." <me@privacy.com> wrote:
>
>>>> Put your account details in and store the number followed by one or more "P"s for each half second pause,
>>>> followed by the post-dial string with a semicolon at the end.
>>>> https://support.counterpath.com/default.asp?W366
>>>
>>> That works a treat. Setting up a remote call diversion under BT's Smart
>>> Divert requires the accurate entry of 33 digits after the intermediate dial
>>> tone and I was finding that tricky using point and click. Many thanks.
>>
>> Now all you need is a mouse macro recorder and a timed windows task to automate the entire
>> affair and the world's your chopped+fried :-)
>
> BTW how did you discover pause dialing with the semicolon? I see in the
> support forum where the company explicitly denies such a capability exists:
> http://forums.counterpath.com/viewto...t=pause#p66943


It was in the FAQs rather than the forum.
Doing a little forensics with my browser history I appear to have been here
https://support.counterpath.com/

clicked FAQ

https://support.counterpath.com/default.asp?W12

then put "pause" in the search box

https://support.counterpath.com/defa...ki&qWiki=pause

Then I selected the top item

https://support.counterpath.com/default.asp?W366

Looks like the forum Admin's primary function is to encourage take-up of the chargeable product, so
no surprises there.

--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

"www.GymRatZ.co.uk" <0845.86.86.888@GymRatZ.Gym.Equipment> wrote in message
news:itamca$bg4$1@dont-email.me...
> Just checking the ever fluctuating betamax prices and I see
> voipcheap.co.uk is right down at the cheapest UK mobile rates (at the
> moment).
> I can't see on the site anywhere but is there a connection charge which
> might skew things back?

Can anyone explain to me what the difference is between calls to landlines
(free) and "national rate" (3p)?

Also, if there is no connection charge, is there a minimum charge for short
calls...?

TIA

"Victor Delta" <none@nospam.com> wrote in message news:itjch3$3b3$1@dont-email.me...
> "www.GymRatZ.co.uk" <0845.86.86.888@GymRatZ.Gym.Equipment> wrote in message news:itamca$bg4$1@dont-email.me...
>> Just checking the ever fluctuating betamax prices and I see
>> voipcheap.co.uk is right down at the cheapest UK mobile rates (at the
>> moment).
>> I can't see on the site anywhere but is there a connection charge which
>> might skew things back?
>
> Can anyone explain to me what the difference is between calls to landlines (free) and "national rate" (3p)?
>
> Also, if there is no connection charge, is there a minimum charge for short calls...?
>
> TIA

I have yet to discover what Betamax means by national calls, but it must be some
undisclosed non-geographic codes as all 01&02 are charged as per the "landline" band
as are 03.

Have you noticed that the United Kingdom is the only country where specific NGN
codes are mentioned in the tariff? This goes for the brands that are not aimed at the UK, not
just voipcheap.co.uk.

On your other point, if the call is not free you pay by the minute, so in the case of a UK mobile
being dialled on voipcheap.co.uk it's 3p + vat the moment you are connected and a further 3p+vat
every full minute. An extremely good deal IMHO.


--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

In article <tuhrv65ov902h1eokg1s090h784flpjui2@4ax.com>,
Anthony R. Gold <tgold@panix.com> wrote:

>A dream hardware solution would be a cordless WiFi phone with built-in SIP
>capabilities, so one could bring one's phone and its number from hotspot to
>hotspot. Does such a device exist? Does such a device exist with the added
>capability of simultaneously being logged-in to multiple SIP services?

There are many Wi-Fi capable SIP devices. E.g. most moden "smartphones"
can have soft-phone applications running on them. Battery life is terrible
though (at least that's my expeirence with N900 and HTC desire when using
Wi-Fi)

Have a look here for some pure Wi-Fi handsets:

http://www.voipon.co.uk/unidata-wire...c-148_213.html

and there are many others.

However, I have to say, SIP over Wi-Fi is rubbish when you don't have
good control over the Wi-Fi. A public hotspot might well block VoIP too
- and even if it doesn't, you're battling with everyone else using that
hotspot and just one PC uploading/downloading will interfere with VoIP.

(Then there's the issue of logging on to the hotspot in the first place -
sometimes it's just not possible without a web browser!)

However if it's for cordless use in the home, then there are several
DECT based phones which are SIP compliant. E.g. the Gigaset IP range
are all very good. (I use them myself)

To use with a betamax service, you'll need to extract the SIP credentials
from the system to program into your cordless device.

>As a starter I may toy with a Linksys SPA3102, which is both cabled and needs
>an analogue phone, but VOIPCheap does list it as being compatible.

As long as you get the SIP details then you have the choice of 1000's of
devices, wired and wireless.

Gordon

> To use with a betamax service, you'll need to extract the SIP credentials
> from the system to program into your cordless device.

I wouldn't want anyone to interpret the above as if Betamax discourage the BYOD
model, they don't
http://www.voipcheap.com/en/sipp.html


--
Graham.

%Profound_observation%

Meanwhile, at the uk.telecom.voip Job Justification Hearings, Anthony R.
Gold chose the tried and tested strategy of:

> A dream hardware solution would be a cordless WiFi phone with built-in SIP
> capabilities,

Wifi isn't great for mobile devices because of power consumption [although
I'm sure this will have got better over the years], and it's not
particularly good for voice either, because of latency and QoS. It's a nice
idea in theory to be able to drift from hotspot to hotspot using one's SIP
client, but unless you manage them yourself [home, work and mum's place, for
example] you may not get SIP working at all.

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On Thu, 23 Jun 2011 22:41:26 +0100, Anthony R. Gold wrote:


> I've now bought a Linksys/Cisco SPA-3102 as a SIP ATA because VOIPCheap
> listed it as compatible. The choice may be a mistake because the device
> contains a router which I did not need. Apart from the router the gadget
> has a phone socket for a POTS PSTN line, a socket for a handset and an
> Ethernet socket for the Internet. The way it works is that incoming SIP
> calls come to the handset and incoming PSTN calls come to the handset.
> The handset calls out via VOIP and I believe it will fail-over to the
> PSTN line. Does anyone know if there is a way to force an outgoing call
> out over the PSTN? If that is in the manual I did not find it but the
> management screen has a display for "Last Called PSTN Number:" which is
> now blank.

It's in the Provisioning Guide, and may be in the user manual. You do it
in the dial plan. Essentially, the FXO port is gw0, so you add that as
part of the dial string:

<9,:>xx.<:gw0>

which means that if a number is preceded by 9, force it out the FXO port.



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On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 13:06:22 +0100, Anthony R. Gold wrote:

> On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 08:18:41 +0100, "Anthony R. Gold"
> <not-for-mail@ahjg.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> In the Line 1 menu I found this existing Dial Plan:
>> (*xx|[3469]11|0|00|[2-9]xxxxxx|1xxx[2-9]xxxxxxS0|xxxxxxxxxxxx.)
>>
>> And in the PSTN Line menu I see a list of 8 numbered Dial Plans which
>> each consists of just this: (xx.)
>>
>> Is one of those places appropriate to insert the <9,:>xx.<:gw0> string?
>> And if so, what would be the entire resulting string, including
>> anything that must remain from before?
>
> I fiddled blindly and finally found this works (using #9 for as access
> code):
> (<#9:>xx.<:@gw0>|*xx|[3469]11|0|00|[2-9]xxxxxx|1xxx[2-9]xxxxxxS0|
xxxxxxxxxxxx.)
>
> Can anyone can improve on that to reduce the access code to a mere "9"?
>
> My "blind" fiddling was helped by this offline Dial Plan simulator that
> I stumbled upon:
> http://www.softpedia.com/get/Interne...M/Sipura-3000-
Dial-Plan-Manager.shtml

Do you not have the user manual? I can let you have acopy.

Anyway, it's pretty simple, but the default setting is geared to North
American numbers. As you may have gathered, the vertical bars separate
acceptable number patterns. X means any digit. Digits (and * or #) can
stand for themselves, or a set of options can be in square brackets (0-7,
for example, or 3456). Dot means 0 or more repetitions of the preceding
character. <a:b> means that if the user dials a sequence a, it's replaced
by b. Comma plays an 'outside' dial tone. ! bars anything matching the
preceding sequence (e.g. you might have 09X.!). @gwn means use gateway n.
You needed #9 because there is a later sequence that clashes, also
starting with 9.

A simplified version might be:

(<9:>xx.<:@gw0>|0[123578]X.|00X.|09X.!)

You could try adding your local code (assuming 6 digit numbers, let's say
it's 01227):

<:01227>XXXXXX

to save dialling that code for local numbers. I haven't tried this
dialplan, as mine is built to go through an Asterisk box; all mine does
is ensure that valid strings get through without timeouts.

If you get dialling delays, tweak the inter-digit timeout. There's a long
one and a short one. In essence, it hangs on to digits until a timeout
expires, and the long one is 10 seconds by default.

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