This topic

Outbound call barring - what is a "national" call?

pgbj — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 17:00:00 GMT

I have Outbound Call Barring on a POTS BT phone line. If I were to use *342# it says it bars "national, international and mobiles". But this does not seem to include local calls? Does "national" here mean just trunk calls?

If I use *341# it says it bars "almost all calls". Does that include "local" - same dial code?

(I know the obvious answer is "try it!" - but this is for my Mum in a care home and she is not able to do this sort of thing - so needs me to visit.)

Thanks

Re: Outbound call barring - what is a "national" call?

iniltous — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 18:07:59 GMT

Chances are the guide was written ages ago and hasn’t really been kept current, it’s been years ( possibly decades ) since ( from a billing point of view ) that there was any difference between a local call and a national call ( a national call where the STD code was necessary, a local calls no code , just the phone number , and adjacent area calls ( via a short code not the STD code )

DV and quite a few PSTN exchanges require the STD code for local calls as well as ‘national’ calls so it depends if the barring is sophisticated enough to realise using the STD code for ‘local’ calls is still a local call ( I suspect it will be )

….TBH , it probably is necessary to try ‘342’ and make a local call , ( using the STD code if that’s necessary in your exchange area ) and then confirming connection, if it doesn’t connect then there isn’t really any difference between 342 and 341 .

FWIW , with BT plans , PAYG and unlimited, call baring is not as useful as it would have been historically, as a call to a mobile ,a local call , or national number are the same cost per minute or included in the plan so stopping a ‘national’ call but allowing local calls is somewhat redundant.

The primary reason for call barring was to stop expensive calls being made , and not a way to restricting a person from making calls for other reasons apart from cost .

AFAIK , there is a restriction where 10 numbers are allowed and no others .

Re: Outbound call barring - what is a "national" call?

NeilO — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 18:36:48 GMT

@pgbj welcome back to the community, *341# will bar local calls.

The only calls it won't bar are as follows:

999 Emergency services
112 Emergency services
150 BT residential customer services
151 BT residential fault reporting
152 BT business customer services
154 BT Business fault reporting
144 BT chargecard
0800 free numbers
0500 free numbers

All about Call Barring | BT Help

Neil

Re: Outbound call barring - what is a "national" call?

pgbj — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 18:47:22 GMT

thanks for the help!

I will go and try 341