Predial numbers for cheap calls

[flyingjase]

Does ayone know a good provider of calls with a pre dial number?

eg At home if I make an international call I dial 1877 before the call and that call gets charged to me by Onetel whose international rates are much cheaper than the BT standard tarif.

This would be for generic business use across 2 serviced offices which won't let me put my own kit into those offices, and the standard service office call charges take the p**s.

The theory goes that instead of dialing 9 for an outside line, we could just hit a memory button which dial the predial number + 9

Thanks!

Jason

[Plotloss]

A PBX will do this automatically for you based on the number dialled.

So 07 numbers go through one provider

00 through another

etc etc

Needs a bit of setting up but once its done its transparent.

[Timsta]

True. I believe the correct answer is Asterisk.

[flyingjase]

The problem is they won't give me access to the PBX to set it up, hence I need a more manual set up / provider that works irrespective of the PBX

[andoverben]

What you need is a company that uses CPS (Carrier Pre Selection) as this negates the need for dialling anything but the calls are routed to the relevant provider by BT.

Generally for Business the calls are mostly shorter than they would be for residential so people like 1877,1899 and 1866 who have reasonable international rates but very high minimum call charges are not so good. More important is no minimum call charge, billed by the second, billed to a fraction of a penny etc.

Actually having reread the original post - I missed the bit about you being in service offices, you are better off getting a good deal and then asking for a manual access code - like 162,132 etc.

Asterisk is not the answer, Asterisk is effectively a do it yourself software based Phone system that is only as good as the person who programmed it - and as that person is generally not a telecoms chap but an IT Chap it is normally a bit crap (although that is not always the case, I work in the industry and I come across more unhappy Asterisk customers than happy ones)

Edited by andoverben on Wednesday 19th September 22:29

[flyingjase]

Thanks - appreciate the info