The 1571 answering service isn't supplied as part of the cheapest O2 home phone package we're currently subscribed to, so I decided to add it for an extra £1 a month. But O2 got back to me and said they couldn't, because 'the exchange doesn't support it'.
Is that right - it's an exchange feature, and if so are there many exchanges that don't support it?
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I'd say they're talking rot!
The exchange will still be BT (unless things have changed) and they all do.
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>> I'd say they're talking rot!
>>
>> The exchange will still be BT (unless things have changed) and they all do.
Things have changed. The building may still be BT, but the racks inside could be anyones.
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Focus
Apart from your 1571 problem, how do you get along with the o2 package? I'm looking to move away from BT?
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I moved from BT to Orange a few years back - good value line rental / broadband package if you have an orange mobile
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>>how do you get along with the o2 package?
Thanks Focus and mikeyb; I'll look into both.
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>> Apart from your 1571 problem, how do you get along with the o2 package? I'm
>> looking to move away from BT?
Too early to tell really - line only installed on Monday. Customer service has been ok so far - 0800 number, haven't had to wait too long, and they sound like they're UK based.
Assuming things go ok, I still reckon it's good value at £20 for the basic phone package including line rental and up to 20Mb 'unlimited'* broadband. I went for the basic phone package with limited included free calls because I use the 18185 prefix service to get cheap calls.
* apparently it's capped at 100Gb
EDIT: and the £20 price includes a £5 discount for being an O2 mobile user.
EDIT2: as a PAYG mobile user I must topup at least £10 every 3 months.
Last edited by: Focus on Fri 26 Nov 10 at 19:46
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I thought the 1571 service was free (but not remotely accessable) provided you used BT for telephone service.
www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=25504
"To start using this service sign up online in Your Account, or dial 1571 from your home number" (the one you want to use BT Answer 1571 on)
Last edited by: AnotherJohnH on Sat 27 Nov 10 at 05:15
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>> I thought the 1571 service was free (but not remotely accessable) provided you used BT
>> for telephone service.
I don't - see previous post.
Spent 10 mildly entertaining minutes yesterday evening talking to a BT customer services chap in India (I think) asking about 1571 on my exchange. Although keen to help, eventually we both realised he didn't have a clue :)
Have reserved a Panasonic twin digital phone + answering machine to pick up from Argos tomorrow; our current phones are getting on a bit anyway.
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>> I don't - see previous post.
>>
I did see the previous posts, but wondered if you'd been talking to somebody who
>> Although keen to help, eventually we
>> both realised he didn't have a clue :)
>>
Sometimes I get good results by trying things that I'm told "don't work".
It's not often the strategy works, but it's quite rewarding when it does.
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>> >> I thought the 1571 service was free (but not remotely accessable) provided you used
>> BT
>> >> for telephone service.
>>
>> I don't - see previous post.
>>
>> Spent 10 mildly entertaining minutes yesterday evening talking to a BT customer services chap in
>> India (I think) asking about 1571 on my exchange. Although keen to help, eventually we
>> both realised he didn't have a clue :)
Hi Focus, amazed he spent as long as ten minutes talking to you! You are no longer a BT customer and have no commercial relationship with BT Retail and he can do nothing to solve your problem, the only people who can are O2.
To clarify how phone and broadband are supplier by Other Licensed Operators, (OLO), in the UK.
The OLO has three options to provide your service:-
1. The OLO retails BT Wholesale's wholesale phone and broadband product.
2. The OLO provides their own broadband kit in the exchange and retails BT's wholesale phone service.
3. The OLO provides their own broadband and phone service kit in the exchange.
All three options are supplied to you, from the local exchange to your premises, over a pair of wires supplied and maintained by Openreach, a wholly owned but commercially separated subsidiary of BT who bill O2 for the rental of those wires.
If you are being supplied your service under option 3 above then the determining factor on whether 1571 is available to you is whether or not O2's exchange equipment can provide the service, the fact that BT customers have the service is irrelevant as their service will be supplied by BT's own equipment to which you are no longer connected.
The difference in exchange equipment used by the different providers can be quite marked, some use the same short codes, 1471, 1571, 17070, 1470, etc others use codes very different.
Unfortunately, if you are supplied by option 3 above and O2's kit doesn't support 1571 then the solution of a new answer phone, etc, is the best/only option open to you.
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Thanks for the comprehensive reply Cockle.
The fact that O2 allow you to request 1571 and charge £1 a month for it would imply that even under option 3 I ought to be able to get it. Perhaps it's old O2 kit in my exchange.
Anyway, I bought a pair of Panasonic DECT phones with answer machine for £40 at the weekend, so as long as we use them for >40 months I'm happy :)
EDIT: I did give 1571 another week to sort itself out after my previous post saying I'd reserved some phones, but it didn't.
Last edited by: Focus on Mon 6 Dec 10 at 07:48
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1571 availability - bathtub tom
