I discovered some annoying additional charges had been added to our BT phone bill, and that led me investigate a range of cost saving options when I couldn't sleep the other night.
It started because we use Sky Talk for phone services but still getting line rental from BT. They get miffed by this arrangement and decide to charge you £7.10 per quarter for two of their services if you don't place 6 calls a quarter over their network. (The 1571 answerphone service we do use and what's worse the caller display service we don't (can't) use. Hmph.) The answer is to remember to dial 1280 on 6 calls a quarter, which routes back through BT, not Sky. But who's going to get that right?Well, I hope the Orchid Dialler will, so I don't have to. You plug it in next to the master socket, and it has a built in clock that allows it to be programmed to switch to different carriers at different times. So, Sky at some times, and cheaper carriers such as 18866 at other times. Or 1899 for all calls to UK mobiles. It also allows you to translate one number for another, ideal for translating all 118 calls to a low cost 118 number, or for pushing certain numbers we call every few days back through BT. It also allows you to bar call types (Mobile or Premium Rate), or calls to specific numbers, and some other things.I'll post again when I've sorted out what the best settings for the dialler seem to be.