Zen Internet Support Forum

I have recently ordered a Dial One service, intending for it to be accessed via an Iridium satellite phone from a small island far away. The problem is that the service comes with an 0845 access number, which as far as I know cannot be called from satellite phones or from outside of the UK. So I need to know the underlying STD number. Customer Services assure me that there is no underlying STD number but that's nonsense - non-geographic numbers always map to an STD number.

As a very happy Zen broadband customer, I really want to use the Zen dial up service for this project. Can anyone assist please?

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John

You could look here http://www.saynoto0870.co.uk/search.php

 I did but got nothing found, but it might be useful for the future! And there HAS to be an underlying STD number, its just silly that ZEN wont provide it to a customer.

Thanks for the thought. Yes, I'd already checked saynoto0870 but no joy. As you say, it's irritating that Zen won't give it out - I expect the reason is commercial, they probably get a small cut of the call charges from the 0845 number.

Anyway, I've now found an alternative solution so the dial up contract with Zen will be terminated before the first month is completed.

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John

Hi John

 I'm a bit confused here, if you already have a Zen broadband account why do you want the Dial One contract? The Zen broadband account comes with a backup 0845 number to that can be used from any telephone, I have used it in the past with my laptop.

Have you tried dialling 0044845etc on your sat phone? It might just work..

 

Hi ten66,

Yes, I know about the dial in backup for broadband and have even used it from time to time when I've been away from home. However, I will be staying in the UK and will still want access to my broadband account, so I can't give the backup number, and thereby, account control to the guys on the island! In other words, we need two separate accounts.

I did try the 0845 number from the Iridium phone and it didn't work. Meanwhile I've found another solution to the problem.
 

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John

I think the 0845 service is contracted out - and yes, that company will make a profit from an 0845 number.  In fact that number will map to many different physical line pairs (one for each 'modem' at the other end)

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The box said "needs Windows 2000 or better" so I installed Fedora Core 6

Ah, if it's contracted out then that would explain Zen's reluctance to divulge the underlying number. About 20 years ago when I used to do things with huge banks of modems we used hunting groups to permit a single number to be used on many PSTN lines. These days, of course, there are no individual lines - it's a 2Mbit/s pipe (maybe even more) going into a multiplexer and probably software modems behind that. Or at least I think so - I escaped from the corporate telecoms world in 2000 to a life of retired bliss, a contented reject from the dot com melt down madness, so I'm a bit out of touch with modern stuff!

One thing I am quite sure of; I thoroughly dislike the trend to ever more 08xx numbers and the revenue distribution opacity that they create. Well, except for 0800 I suppose though even that is a pain in the wallet if you're calling them from anything other than a land line. Grumpy? Moi?
 

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John

John L:

One thing I am quite sure of; I thoroughly dislike the trend to ever more 08xx numbers and the revenue distribution opacity that they create. Well, except for 0800 I suppose though even that is a pain in the wallet if you're calling them from anything other than a land line. Grumpy? Moi?
 

Press '1' for 'agree'; '2' for 'disagree' or '3' for 'don't know' followed by the Hash key  lol