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From: olapw@olgb1.oliv.co.uk (Tony Walton)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: British Telecom Special Service Codes
Message-ID: <14577@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 11 Nov 90 03:02:56 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 809, Message 6 of 6


clive@x.co.uk (Clive Feather) writes:

>I recently took up a free trial of some of British Telecom "Star
>Services". I was sent two manuals, one for "System X" (the local
>exchange equipment), and one for the AXE 10 (a.k.a "System Y") (which

How on earth did you get hold of this?  It took me about three weeks
to convince my local BT "service" centre that my local exchange (081
446) had become digital. A couple of weeks later they (grudgingly) let
me have a leaflet which mentioned "Charge Advice" and "Reminder Calls"
as being "free" (ie no extra rental).  It did not, however, give
details of the codes needed to access these services.  A few calls
later I found an operator who had heard of *55* and the *40* / *411#
services (reminder calls and charge advice calls).  Unfortunately
no-one mentioned *56* (repeated reminder) - this explains the
"spurious" reminder calls I've been getting ever since I played about
with the star services and which BT have been unable to explain :-(

>This table gives all the codes listed in the manuals.

This is exactly what I have been trying to wrench from BT for several
months now.  Thanks, Clive.

Has anybody any idea why BT seem so loath to release any information
about the services which they offer?  As I recall their leaflet made
no reference to call barring (I may be wrong here - I don't have the
leaflet handy).


[Moderator's Note: Is BT a lot like the American telcos in this
respect, that they try to keep their customers from speaking directly
with anyone who actually knows anything? Here in the States, it is a
very fortunate subscriber indeed who can get past the several layers
of supervision in the Business Office and speak with an actual
technician or central office person.  PAT]