Hands0n
24th January 2008, 07:04 AM
Heh, this takes me back a while ..... LCR, or Least Cost Routing.
Eeeee when I were a lad, back when Mercury just came into being the UK notion of LCR was born. At that time (early-80's) I had installed and was running a Plessy ISDX, one of a new generation of all-digital PABX, for a Commodities Broker in the City. It was great to be able to begin to use LCR in the switch to select between Mercury and BT to choose the cheapest carrier per call or route.
Fast forward to 2008, and the choice of carrier is vast and available to the general public by way of CPS (Carrier Pre Select) or by use of a prefix dialled before each call. But neither method of selection is entirely ideal. The CPS ties you in to a specific carrier, and dialling a prefix is prone to error or non-use - the family just wouldn't get it and not bother.
Enter technology [woo hoo, gotta love technology] in the form of the Orchid Dialler (http://www.orchid-electronics.com/cwclient/diallerquestions.htm) which does the work for you. This little device sits between your house wiring and the BT socket, and you program it up to perform CPS based upon your own criteria. Make lots of calls to Greece and other European countries? Then set it to select (by prefix) 18185 and talk for 1p per minute. USA or (topically) China? Then try 1899 for 1p per minute. If you are already on CPS this will work to take you away from your CPS provider (i.e Sky or Talk Talk) and back to BT where non-geographic (i.e. 0870) calls are cheaper than the CPS and cheap-rate providers [go figure!]. The options and opportunities are endless.
Calls to mobiles (http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-talk/19012-37-mobile-calls-i-am-shocked.html) can also be substantially reduced by using LCR to select a suitable gateway provider (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=1598074&postcount=4) (as they're called). Call costs can be as low as 10p/min weekdays and 3p/min weekends - a bit better than 35p/min!
The Orchid Dialler is not the only device on the market - there are several, although Orchid seem to be the manufacturer of choice for some of the CPS providers, so can't be too bad. Prices range up to £20 for their top of the range box that will select multiple providers. And you can get a 20% discount by following the tip here (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=15502).
NB: You can even use these gateway providers from your mobile by using their prefix - but check carefully whether or not your mobile network operator will charge you extra for using the prefix. They cannot stop you, but they can charge you.
So now you know, there is no excuse for not saving even more money for that flashy trashy new mobile later in the year :D
Eeeee when I were a lad, back when Mercury just came into being the UK notion of LCR was born. At that time (early-80's) I had installed and was running a Plessy ISDX, one of a new generation of all-digital PABX, for a Commodities Broker in the City. It was great to be able to begin to use LCR in the switch to select between Mercury and BT to choose the cheapest carrier per call or route.
Fast forward to 2008, and the choice of carrier is vast and available to the general public by way of CPS (Carrier Pre Select) or by use of a prefix dialled before each call. But neither method of selection is entirely ideal. The CPS ties you in to a specific carrier, and dialling a prefix is prone to error or non-use - the family just wouldn't get it and not bother.
Enter technology [woo hoo, gotta love technology] in the form of the Orchid Dialler (http://www.orchid-electronics.com/cwclient/diallerquestions.htm) which does the work for you. This little device sits between your house wiring and the BT socket, and you program it up to perform CPS based upon your own criteria. Make lots of calls to Greece and other European countries? Then set it to select (by prefix) 18185 and talk for 1p per minute. USA or (topically) China? Then try 1899 for 1p per minute. If you are already on CPS this will work to take you away from your CPS provider (i.e Sky or Talk Talk) and back to BT where non-geographic (i.e. 0870) calls are cheaper than the CPS and cheap-rate providers [go figure!]. The options and opportunities are endless.
Calls to mobiles (http://www.skyuser.co.uk/forum/sky-talk/19012-37-mobile-calls-i-am-shocked.html) can also be substantially reduced by using LCR to select a suitable gateway provider (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=1598074&postcount=4) (as they're called). Call costs can be as low as 10p/min weekdays and 3p/min weekends - a bit better than 35p/min!
The Orchid Dialler is not the only device on the market - there are several, although Orchid seem to be the manufacturer of choice for some of the CPS providers, so can't be too bad. Prices range up to £20 for their top of the range box that will select multiple providers. And you can get a 20% discount by following the tip here (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=15502).
NB: You can even use these gateway providers from your mobile by using their prefix - but check carefully whether or not your mobile network operator will charge you extra for using the prefix. They cannot stop you, but they can charge you.
So now you know, there is no excuse for not saving even more money for that flashy trashy new mobile later in the year :D