So how does this work then?

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CharlieOneSix
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So how does this work then?

#1 Post by CharlieOneSix » Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:41 pm

While we were out a long lost cousin of Mrs C16 in South Africa left a message on the answerphone asking her to call back on the mobile number she provided. We don't make any international calls so on investigating call charges I was surprised and rather sceptical to find that if I dialled a certain 0870 number - which is free up to an hour on my BT call plan - and then when asked, keyed in the South African mobile number followed by a #, that the whole call would be free.

The call has appeared on my recent BT call usage list and indeed was free. I might be a bit dim here but how does anyone make any profit out of this? The cousin said that on her mobile the call ID showed as a local number. Odd.
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Re: So how does this work then?

#2 Post by ian16th » Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:45 pm

Dunno, But a guy from Barclay's at a desk in Canary Wharf phoned me, and it showed as a SA number on my phone.

Can't trust anyone or anything these days.
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Re: So how does this work then?

#3 Post by Stoneboat » Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:53 pm

ian16th wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 12:45 pm
Dunno, But a guy from Barclay's at a desk in Canary Wharf phoned me, and it showed as a SA number on my phone.

Can't trust anyone or anything these days.

Something similar, a guy from Microsoft phoned me the other day to inform me I had a problem with my computer. When I asked him where he was calling from, he said Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He hung up when I asked him why the area code on my phone showed he was calling from Birmingham, Alabama. PFM, I guess.

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Re: So how does this work then?

#4 Post by Capetonian » Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:25 pm

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) so it costs the provider next to nothing. It will be routed via VoIP to the network in the terminating country from where it will route to the terminating phone as a local call, which is why you will see a local number even if the call originates elsewhere.

How they make a profit is not so clear to me. If the call is free they obviously don't but I would guess that they use it as a loss leader to encourage people to use them and some calls will be chargeable.

What remains a mystery to me is how WhatsApp makes money. I assume it doesn't but it's backed and subsidised by Faecesbook, its owners, who cull information about WA users.

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Re: So how does this work then?

#5 Post by ian16th » Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:49 pm

Capetonian wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:25 pm
How they make a profit is not so clear to me.
The Telco supplying and selling the data is who makes the profit.

Here on the KZN south coast, fibre simply isn't available, I have a 4Mb ADSL line and a deal with Telkom SA.

I pay R600 a month and get all my calls to Telkom landlines free. SWMBO talks for hours to friends in Joburg!
My DSL use us 'unlimited' and I get 2 Gb of Telkom Mobile Data.
This is why I bought a dual sim phone. I kept my old Vodacom PAYG sim card which I use for my voice calls, and all my mobile data comes via the Telkom sim card.
Most of my mobile data is via WiFi and I have never even used 1Gb in a month of the Telkom data.

One thing about WhatsApp, both parties have to pay for the data! I might be using WiFi but the receiving party might have to pay for mobile data.
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Re: So how does this work then?

#6 Post by CharlieOneSix » Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:58 pm

Capetonian wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:25 pm
VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) so it costs the provider next to nothing. It will be routed via VoIP to the network in the terminating country from where it will route to the terminating phone as a local call, which is why you will see a local number even if the call originates elsewhere.....
Thanks Capetonian - that makes a lot of sense. :-bd
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Re: So how does this work then?

#7 Post by G-CPTN » Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:02 pm

Capetonian wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:25 pm
How they make a profit is not so clear to me.
Selling your telephone number to scammers?

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Re: So how does this work then?

#8 Post by unifoxos » Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:11 pm

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) so it costs the provider next to nothing.

For land lines, yes, but mobiles?
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Re: So how does this work then?

#9 Post by OFSO » Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:26 pm

Land lines are disappearing, too expensive. Both houses in UK and Spain use a 4G box to connect wired internal telephones, TV and 'puters to the outside world. £22 a month in UK, €30 a month in Spain, unlimited everything. Huge advantage for telecoms industry is no wired network to maintain, no poles, no telephone exchange, no switching, nothing. For the consumer, no faffing about with installation. Box arrives, plug in mains, it works. Both support over 30 WiFi devices and four CAT6 ethernet cables. Kills off SKYPE too.

Back to theme. From this year WA will sell advertising so that answers that.

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Re: So how does this work then?

#10 Post by Boac » Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:41 pm

What happens with a power failure? Do you use a UPS?

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Re: So how does this work then?

#11 Post by OFSO » Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:39 pm

No, we light a candle. Living in Spain you need LOTS of candles...... Seriously if power goes off we lose WiFi and all the mobile phones switch directly to the local mast. Usually power outages do not last long, up to ten minutes my UPS can cover. Worst was three days after a metre of snow fell in four hours and all the rusty never-maintained mains pylons collapsed, hundreds of them, transformers blew, and we stacked up the woodstove as it was -5° out.

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Re: So how does this work then?

#12 Post by Rwy in Sight » Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:04 pm

Boac wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 3:41 pm
What happens with a power failure? Do you use a UPS?
And that's the reason why I don't want to switch from PSTN to VoIP.

Wth PSTN, you always or almost have voice communication.

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Re: So how does this work then?

#13 Post by Capetonian » Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:19 pm

Bear in mind that even with PSTN, if you lose power and you only have cordless handsets, they don't work, so every home should have at least one corded set ..... he says .... but we don't, although we do have an old one in a cupboard somewhere that we could plug in if necessary.

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Re: So how does this work then?

#14 Post by ian16th » Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:33 pm

Capetonian wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:19 pm
Bear in mind that even with PSTN, if you lose power and you only have cordless handsets, they don't work, so every home should have at least one corded set ..... he says .... but we don't, although we do have an old one in a cupboard somewhere that we could plug in if necessary.
I have an El Cheapo Chinese one that is also a speaker phone, if the 3 x AA batteries aren't flat!
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Re: So how does this work then?

#15 Post by Alisoncc » Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:38 pm

What I always find amusing are those to pontificate about a "cashless" society. Cards aren't much use without electricity to drive the ATM's, card readers, etc. I always retain a cash stash just in case.
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Re: So how does this work then?

#16 Post by Rwy in Sight » Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:15 pm

ian16th wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:33 pm
Capetonian wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:19 pm
Bear in mind that even with PSTN, if you lose power and you only have cordless handsets, they don't work, so every home should have at least one corded set ..... he says .... but we don't, although we do have an old one in a cupboard somewhere that we could plug in if necessary.
I have an El Cheapo Chinese one that is also a speaker phone, if the 3 x AA batteries aren't flat!

All those issues are taken care of. I don't even use (at least currently a phone needing batteries) let alone a cordless one.

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Re: So how does this work then?

#17 Post by Pontius Navigator » Mon Jan 07, 2019 9:57 pm

Alisoncc wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:38 pm
What I always find amusing are those to pontificate about a "cashless" society. Cards aren't much use without electricity to drive the ATM's, card readers, etc. I always retain a cash stash just in case.
Ah, but no power means they can't accept cash! Most shops today cannot operate if their tills go down. They have any system of paper and pencil backup. Your all shop can manage but linked ones can't

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Re: So how does this work then?

#18 Post by ExSp33db1rd » Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:53 am

VOIP -yes, I use that NZ to UK, coats about 2c ( 1P UK ? ) minute, but it does show a UK number if the receiver has caller ID stuff. My son used to refuse to bother picking up calls from Tunbridge Wells and the like, thought they were Spam, but has learned now.

Frequent power outages in NZ, one this morning, my visiting UK Grandaughter was totally grief stricken - " but Grandad, how can I use my phone, there's no WiFi ?" She actually had to talk to us for awhile, until we were re-connected. Keep a landline constantly tethered, mainly to call the power company to ask What's wrong this time, and how long to fix? " Which leads me to ...... listening to 20 minutes of classical music to connect to a human of the power company, who "value my call", "will record it against future litigation etc" - training ? Yeah ! Right ! - to then be told that there was a known fault in such and such an area, equipment failure, about 3 hours to fix etc. The Human obviously knew the problem, had to repeat it to everyone trying to gain info. so WTF can't "they" put that on a recorded message at the start, to save everyone hanging on to the phone forever ? Too difficult ?

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Re: So how does this work then?

#19 Post by Cacophonix » Tue Jan 08, 2019 7:32 am

Alisoncc wrote:
Mon Jan 07, 2019 8:38 pm
What I always find amusing are those to pontificate about a "cashless" society. Cards aren't much use without electricity to drive the ATM's, card readers, etc. I always retain a cash stash just in case.
Keeping a supply of cash, gold, diamonds and a machine gun or two with enough ammo and food and fresh water for at least a year is never a bad idea

A German boss of my used to hoard nylon tights as well, to be used to barter with in lieu of cash. Something in the Germanic race memory after World War 2 I guess. He was as mad as a pair of lederhosen mind you!

The fabric of society has been made much more vulnerable through our pervase reliance on the internet and electronic equipment to transact and communicate the most basic financial features of a civilised society. We now have one single point of failure and it is electrical.

The barbarians await at the gate. Chaos will reign and early death will attend.

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Re: So how does this work then?

#20 Post by unifoxos » Tue Jan 08, 2019 7:36 am

Re Speedy's post above - it can't be that difficult. If our power is down and I don't ring immediately the message I get when I do ring is "We are aware of a loss of power in the xxxx area and...." usually giving a few words about the problem and an ETA for the power back.
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