Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Tue, 21 May 91 9:36:17 BST From: Clive Feather Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Calling Cards in Britain Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 386, Message 8 of 8 Lines: 41 In 11-374, Linc Madison asks how to use UK calling cards. I have a BT card. It carries two numbers: the "dialled calls" number (xxx xx xxx) and the "operator calls" number (44M xxx xx xxx yy). I also have a four-digit PIN allocated to me by BT. From a private phone, I dial: 144 / xxx xx xxx / pppp / . Slashes indicate locations where there is a voice prompt if I pause; the prompt cuts out as soon as I continue dialling. The (male) voice is the one who does the speaking clock. The number must be in the full long-distance form: I cannot use local dialling codes or omit the code if I am calling from the same area code. The 144 may be pulse dialled, but the rest must be tone dialled. All BT public phones do pulse dialling only. After I dial the 144, the phone issues a burst of 10-12 tones (presumably its own number), and any dialling I do after the beep is sent as tones, not pulses. Instead of a number, I can dial ##44 (call a preset number: my office). At *any* time during a call I can dial ##22/, ##33 (redial), or ##44. These cut off the current call (or busy tone, or whatever), but do *not* produce a dial tone. The UK does not have an equivalent to the US 0+ dialling. Phoning via the operator, I quote the whole of the "operator calls" number, the number I am calling, and (from the NANP) the area code I am calling from. I have not tried using the operator in the UK. From Hungary, the operator knows which country I am calling from (though many think that "HG" means "Hong Kong" until disabused). [For UK readers, you can get a BT operator in the USA with 1-800-445-5667.] Clive D.W. Feather | IXI Limited clive@x.co.uk | 62-74 Burleigh St. Phone: +44 223 462 131 | Cambridge CB1 1OJ (USA: 1 800 XDESK 57) | United Kingdom