Fone Forum

As all of us here may be aware that ALL UK mobile networks have stopped the 07 access numbers to call abroad.

As you be be aware that the 3 Network Pay As you go, gives their customers 2/3p per minute for any call they receive!

Is it not possible that Pre-dial gets a mobile number from one of the 5 UK networks, where the company pays Pre-dial for any calls connecting to this number?

The more calls connect to this number the more Pre-Dial will benefit!

Regards
Nadz

Moderator's note:  I regret that this post may need some revision, as I suspect that it may be somewhat misleading in at least 2 respects of detail.

I propose to leave it here for now for mobaholic's comments tomorrow morning, but I warn all visitors not to assume that all the information it contains is necessarily accurate.

Good morning folks.  First let me apologise that I was not able to get online yesterday.        :'(

Nadz, I have told you before that I value the stimulation of some of your ideas, and I don't want to discourage you from writing in any way.  However, Dave took the action that he did for good reason, because on this occasion you have not really done your 'homework' very thoroughly.         :o
I mean by that, that the inventiveness of your thinking has been let down by inadequate research into the facts.

Let's go through things carefully together.

Firstly I see that you stated that:


Is that true ?  Unfortunately not.  The current pre-pay offering from 3, called the Flat 12 tariff, carries no such feature.  See here (http://www.three.co.uk/personal/price_plans_/pay_as_you_go_/what_it_costs.omp).

Was it ever true ?  Again, unfortunately not.  The previous 3 pre-pay tariff, called WePay, offered 2p for all texts received, and 5p per minute for calls received, ( not 2-3p as you stated ) 
See:-   here (http://www.three.co.uk/personal/price_plans_/pay_as_you_go_/we_pay_/index.omp).

Most importantly, the WePay SIM has not been available to buy for around 6 months now, as both A1ia5 and myself know all too well ( as it just happens both of us have been trying to get hold of one for test purposes ).

But there are deeper matters to consider also.

Even if the WePay SIM were still available, it costs you 30p / minute to make calls, so the 5p back for a minute of call received is not really very much, seeing that it has cost you so much to call people yourself.  Most people would prefer the current Flat 12 tariff, with its much more reasonable rate of 12p / minute for X-net calls.

A further factor is what I would call the 'parasitic' element.
Another reason that 3 could appear generous in rebating money was because of its high termination charges during the week.  In other words, even if getting back 5p / minute per call received looked attractive, who was actually paying that price ?  Answer: your friends who were silly enough to call you !  So any benefit you derived was really parasitic on the generosity ( or foolishness ) of your friends.  That's not something I should want to advocate myself.

Now it just so happens that I know that pre-dial did once consider such an idea as you proposed, so your idea, in principal, was not so out of the question.        ;)
However, the idea was soon dropped, when rates and termination charges changed, and the scheme proved unworkable for economic reasons, not just the moral ones.        ;)

There are lots of discussions on the internet about the expenses of the We Pay deal, though I could not find them when I had a quick look just now.        :'(

Anyway, to sum up, good thinking    :), but let down by inadequate research I'm afraid    :'(.

Don't worry, I am sure that you won't repeat that mistake.    :D

mobaholic.

As an additional thought to the above, a good tip to pass on to your friends is to port in a O2 or Vodafone number if you want to take out a contract or Pre-Pay with '3'.

On the Pre-Pay side it is definitely worth it, as they give you a £10 credit for porting in a number.        ;D

But on both, those calling you from landlines will be charged a lower rate than if they called a number originally allocated to '3'.        ;)

This does not work for calls originating from other mobiles, unfortunately, as all the mobile networks know where their numbers are located; but for some reason landline companies such as B.T. just go by the originating network when working out their calling charges.

So if you have a O2 number ported to '3', B.T, and other landline providers will just charge the O2 rate, not the higher one for the '3' network.        ;)

HTH.

mobaholic.

Thanks for the info...

I used 3 as an example, but I could have used Noodle   ;)

Thanks anyway!
Regards
Nadz

The previous Pre-Dial mobile access numbers used call diversion to a number we did not see, and though it's only a guess, I suspect this may have been a different mobile number. That this method is not available any more implies to me that it isn't possible at the moment, or until a new idea or facility comes along.

Could  I ask for the thread title to be modified a little, as the current wording makes it sound like an actual announcement of a new service, rather than a hope?

Hi andy, thanks for your first post here.        :)

I seriously doubt that the mobile callthroughs of the past went to other mobile numbers.  I know that they did not all work in the same way.  On O2, for example, some, ( though not all ), went to 0844 access numbers.        ;)

Regarding the thread title, I have to agree with you.  That was my first reaction on seeing it, but I didn't want to discourage ndiqbal too much, and decided to leave it to see if anyone screemed !  Now that you have done so, ( metaphorically speaking ), I shall change it throughout to make your point clear.

Thanks for your feedback.

mh.