Spanish landline

[guest14507]

OK I will do that. Thank you.

[guest4538]

Chisme. It is humble pie time, I thought I had better check my information and it seems I do get charged by the minute for 087 calls, at the same rate as the company you recommend. I should engage my brain before letting my fingers do the talking.

No worries. But, if you haven't already, do check out http://www.saynoto0870.com/.

Incidentally most UK banks offer an alternative UK geographical number, to 087... numbers, when calling them from outside the UK. That alternative number is often shown on the back of credit and debit cards, but there's a catch: sometimes they will not accept your call if you ring from a UK number, so you need to either hide your UK number or ring from a Spanish number in those situations.

You can often find alternative 0800..., 0808..., or 0500... numbers which are free to call from the UK, but are unavailable from a Spanish number. However you can call those numbers for free from a Sipgate account or from a Skype account from anywhere, and you need no credit in either of those accounts to be able to do so!

[guest4538]

Can anyone tell me how i can get a landline phone with a UK number please?

Juan (http://www.arboleas.co.uk/forum/index.php?action=pm;sa=send;u=10215) has invited those, like you, who have the Arboleas Town Hall internet, to message him if they want a UK telephone.

Juan has not said which VOIP provider he uses, but I believe that it might be http://www.netelip.com/numeracion-telefonica-numeros-de-telefono/.

You will see that their charges are 1.95€/month (subject to an annual advance payment) for a UK geographical number and calls to landlines and most mobiles, in Spain and the UK, are very reasonable at 1.5 - 2.0 cents/minute. (Calls to mobiles are certainly much cheaper than Sipgate's equivalent charges, but there are one or two expensive exceptions: eg 0.24€/minute to a UK TalkTalk mobile.)

You need to add to that the initial set-up and hardware costs (telephones and/or VOIP adapters).

[guest14507]

Chisme. It is humble pie time, I thought I had better check my information and it seems I do get charged by the minute for 087 calls, at the same rate as the company you recommend. I should engage my brain before letting my fingers do the talking.

[guest4538]

Chisme. Thank you for the information about the cheap calls which I did find on the internet, but along with the friends and family calls there are business numbers I find I have to call more and more and they normally start 087 for which the company you recommend charge per minute. Which means I am paying for them to play me music for quite a while, and then pay to talk to them, with the VOIP I have I don't care how long they play the music, and how long they talk, I only pay 5 cents.  Thanks again.

Most UK companies now have an alternative to 087... numbers and you can usually find what they are on http://www.saynoto0870.com/.

Nevertheless the VOIP you've found would be useful in the event of not being able to find alternative numbers: perhaps you could share their details with the forum - I'd certainly welcome the information.

[guest4538]

While all of the advice above seems sound, all I have is a mobile phone with a dual sim in and a VOIP account on my computer. If somebody in the UK wants to ring me, they do it on my UK mobile number, if it is friends or family, I ring them back on my VOIP account which costs a 5 cent connection charge and 0 cents per minute. The VOIP I use costs 12€ (10€ + 2€ tax) for 120 (4 months) days.

So it seems you would, after all, benefit from having a UK geographical telephone number.

Presumably your friends and relatives do not have mobiles or inclusive mobile call costs from their UK landlines. Without that, it will be costing them 30p+ simply to seek a call-back from you. Most folk have access to cheap or inclusive calls to landlines. So not only are your friends and relatives likely to welcome the opportunity of calling a UK geographical number in order to be able contact you, but it may not then be necessary for you to go through the rigmarole of phoning them back every time.

You can set up a free UK Sipgate number on your desktop so that when they ring your UK number, you will receive the call on your computer. When you are away from home and unable to answer their call, they can leave a message on your Sipgate voicemail: the recorded voice message is sent to your email.

Furthermore you could register your Sipgate number with your outward-calling VOIP account so that, when you ring out from your computer, calls appear to come from a landline in the UK.

If your dual-sim mobile is a smartphone, all this can also be set up on that. Then, whilst within a WiFi connected area, you will receive calls from the UK direct to your mobile and, when calling out, you will be given the choice of ringing from one of your Sim cards or through VOIP.

Finally I believe that you could find a less expensive VOIP account. I have a feeling that your account is one of those under the Delmont umbrella. Some of those accounts include connection charges with all their calls: I would recommend you find one with no connection charges. https://www.sipdiscount.com/dashboard is one that has no connection charges with free calls to UK landlines for 4 months etc, and calls to Spanish landlines and mobiles are reasonable (but don't use it for UK mobiles, or UK landlines outside the free period).

I trust all this is helpful.

PS Sorry this message was removed in error, and has been replaced out of sequence.

[guest14507]

Chisme. Thank you for the information about the cheap calls which I did find on the internet, but along with the friends and family calls there are business numbers I find I have to call more and more and they normally start 087 for which the company you recommend charge per minute. Which means I am paying for them to play me music for quite a while, and then pay to talk to them, with the VOIP I have I don't care how long they play the music, and how long they talk, I only pay 5 cents.  Thanks again.

[guest14507]

While all of the advice above seems sound, all I have is a mobile phone with a dual sim in and a VOIP account on my computer. If somebody in the UK wants to ring me, they do it on my UK mobile number, if it is friends or family, I ring them back on my VOIP account which costs a 5 cent connection charge and 0 cents per minute. The VOIP I use costs 12€ (10€ + 2€ tax) for 120 (4 months) days.

[guest4538]

I am obviously missing something, why would you want an English landline number in Spain?

One of the main reasons is for family and friends in the UK to be able to keep in touch cheaply, as Rod has indicated. Furthermore my UK GP, dentist, banks, etc are unlikely to want to contact me at all, if I gave them a Spanish telephone number!

You don't actually need a telephone number to take advantage of the cheap rates for outbound calls, but, without one, the recipients' caller displays would show "anonymous": some people don't pick up when they see that on their phones and, even if they did accept it, they would have no means of calling back if they wanted to! So a valid geographical number can be quite useful.

If, like you, having no or few (where Skype-to-Skype will suffice) ties in the UK, then I can understand that a Spanish number might be more useful. But getting a Spanish geographical telephone number (950... or 850...) can be problematic unless you can sign up with Albox-online for broadband and telephone at 39.93€/month, or Movistar for 22,21€/month (for landline only). You cannot get a Spanish telephone number from Skype.

Spain have laws which, in theory, prevent the use of nomadic Spanish geographical telephone numbers: presumably arising from a policy designed to protect their national telephone company, Telefónica (Movistar)! In other words, 950... and 850... numbers should only be available through wired-connections (twisted copper pairs or fibre optic), ie landlines. Presumably Albox-online have found ways around this legislation, since their connections are not hard-wired to the home, whereas Skype have not found such a loop-hole! This difficulty, together with the costs involved, might be another reason for residents in Spain choosing a UK geographical number for their home telephones.

[lmj52]

I am obviously missing something, why would you want an English landline number in Spain?

It's actually a uk number not English. See reasons above.

[Rod]

I can phone my relatives for next to nothing and they can phone me as well for a local call charge.

[guest14507]

I am obviously missing something, why would you want an English landline number in Spain?

[guest4538]

If you have arboleas internet, send me a message with your details. Sipgate in my opinion is very expensive.
Best regards,
Juan

Juan, you are both right and wrong!

I can see that when you are setting up a customer with VOIP, it might be more straightforward for you (and easier for your clients to understand), if you use the same provider for both DID(Direct Inward Dial) and outgoing calls. In that situation there might well be providers who are cheaper than Sipgate. Perhaps you can advise which you recommend?

But it is not essential to use the same company for both inward and outbound calls.

For obtaining a UK number and receiving calls, no company can be cheaper than Sipgate: its entirely free!

For making calls, I agree that there are many providers cheaper than Sipgate: eg some of the Delmont providers - https://www.voipkredi.com/page.php?page=betamax-dellmont. I mentioned one previously: https://www.dialcheap.com/login/ - do look at their rates and tell us if you know of any cheaper. These companies are not DID providers, but they can be configured to display any telephone number owned by you: ie a landline number, a mobile number, or a telephone number supplied by a VOIP DID provider.

So my personal preference is to use Sipgate for my inward UK number and two or three Dellmont retailers (pre-programmed to minimize charges) for outgoing calls. All calls can be received on home phones, computers, mobiles and tablets and sent on the same range of equipment from anywhere in the World. A geek's paradise....

[jbonillom]

If you have arboleas internet, send me a message with your details. Sipgate in my opinion is very expensive.


Best regards,

Juan

[guest4538]

I thought a Skype account was the only way but I'm sure will be able assist if thats not correct !
Hogs

Skype is another VOIP option, and you can get a UK geographical number from Skype.

I believe the rental cost of a Skype UK number varies according to the calling plan you choose.

If you want to use Skype for calls to landlines and mobiles you are able to configure your account to show your mobile number in caller displays at no additional cost. So people you call will think you're phoning from your UK mobile (or Spanish mobile, if you configure Skype with that instead). But, depending on your call duration, it might be cheaper to make a roaming call in Spain directly from your UK PAYG mobile:

• A one minute call from Spain to a UK or Spanish mobile would cost 0.126€ from Skype and £0.04 from a Tesco or O2 UK mobile;
• A text message from Spain to a UK mobile costs €0.08 from Skype and £0.01 from a Tesco or O2 UK mobile!

[guest4538]

We have a Sipgate account. Phone is fine as long as internet is working. No internet, no landline...

Yes, Sipgate is a VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) provider: it is not a landline.

Sipgate is free if you do it yourself. If you prefer someone else to configure and manage your VOIP, then Albox-online appear to offer a good service for 9.68€/month which includes an Almeria telephone number: but, unlike the DIY solution, you would not have the flexibility to use these facilities anywhere other than through the VOIP adapter and router which the company set up in your Spanish home. If Arboleas Town Hall is your internet provider, then I believe Juan will, upon request, set up VOIP for you: I've no idea which provider he uses, nor how flexible the system is, nor how much it costs. Or you could purchase a pre-configured VOIP adapter, as recommended by Tetley.

If you want a landline, then you might get one from Movistar for 22.21€/month subject to the availability of the necessary infrastructure (ie the telephone lines and poles). But you will not get a UK number on a Spanish landline. Furthermore the quality of VOIP calls easily match, or are often better nowadays, than those from a landline. And the cost of landline calls now seem to be outrageous in comparison with those through the best VOIP providers. This, and the greater flexibility offered, has resulted in many large companies switching from landline to VOIP.

It is true that, with VOIP, if your internet goes down, you also lose your phone connection. However most folk with a landline also get their internet through the same line, and when their phone line goes down so does their internet: so, much the same! Since I've no information about the relative frequency of fixed line failures compared with microwave transmission failures, I cannot comment upon which is better in terms of reliability. I suppose in the event of phone and internet failure, most of us would use a mobile as back-up for essential communications.

[Hudders]

We have a Sipgate account. Phone is fine as long as internet is working. No internet, no landline...

[Tetley]

Yes deffo sipgate,cheap as chips, a local tecno person supplyed us with the box and set it up for abought 70e  had it for  4 years and is as good as a landline.

pm through if yer want the tecno persons,contact.

[lmj52]

Chisme very informative. Thanks.
:c017:

[guest4538]

Can anyone tell me how i can get a landline phone with a UK number please?

Free telephone numbers are available from https://www.sipgate.co.uk/basic/ with whichever UK area code you want. To register you must be either in the UK or using a UK VPN from Spain. Once registered, you can access your account from anywhere in the world without a VPN.

You can receive calls directly onto your computer, tablet, smartphone, a standard phone connected through a Voip adapter to your router, or a specially designed Voip phone connected directly to your router. You'll need appropriate apps to do all this and you'll find all the information needed on the Sipgate site. All this is free, apart from the one-off small cost of any devices you choose, and you can receive calls wherever you are in the World.

You can use Sipgate to make calls, but there are cheaper Voip providers: one of the cheapest is https://www.dialcheap.com/rates/calling-rates (in particular, check out the calling rates to mobiles). Whichever provider you choose to make calls, it can be configured to show your Sipgate number in caller displays: so recipients will think you're calling from Liverpool (or the area code you've chosen) wherever you're calling from in the World.

[Steve c]

Yes we have a phone with Albox online €8 a month you get an English landline number and a Spanish one. You put credit on it and can call anywhere in world for just a few cents any type of number you call does not matter, we call family in South America and Uk regularly

[Rod]

We use Albox online for a home phone with both UK and Spanish number, you can then choose which one you want to be your default. It is not a landline per se but is a voip type telephone.

[Fishery]

Can anyone tell me how i can get a landline phone with a UK number please?