Telecoms Advice - telephone, mobile phone, VOIP and broadband Internet

Telecoms Advice is an independent website for UK phone and Internet users. Initially aimed at small UK businesses, SMEs and remote and Small Office Home Office (SOHO) workers, we now also cater for personal and residential consumers. It covers the practical applications, benefits and costs of using UK telecommunications (fixed telephone line, mobile phone services, broadband Internet and voip) and similar Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).

Although it is written for UK business people, and concentrates on UK telecom, telephone, mobile phone and Internet products and services, the technical overviews and information you will find here will be relevant to UK personal, residential and international telecommunications consumers.

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Telecoms Advice was initiated and seed funded by Oftel's Small Business Task Force - see the original Oftel foreword here.  We were an official partner in the DTI ‘UK online for business’ initiative, now absorbed into the DTI Small Business Service, and authored their original ‘Broadband’ brochure, but we are independent of Government, can make reference to commercial products and services, and link freely to external sources of information.

The ‘advice’ or information we publish is intended to be practical, impartial and/or balanced, giving an overview of products and services on offer and drawing on the expertise of both the industry and the experiences of UK personal, residential and small business or SME telecommunications consumers. However, this is a fast moving market, our information cannot be comprehensive and neither inclusion nor exclusion should be taken as recommendation or otherwise. Information on external sites we may link to is outside of our control.  Buyers should always beware! And see the usual disclaimer.

Is your business taking full advantage of the products and services on offer in the telecommunications market?

 Are you baffled by all the jargon and technical terms?

Got a question?

But where do you start?

How can you contribute?

The information you find here is only the start. We want to know what you want to know about telecoms, information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the Internet, and about your experiences – good and bad – of the products and telephone services on the market.

Who are we?

TelecomsAdvice is published by Crucible Multimedia Ltd based in Sheffield. Crucible was set-up specifically to publish telecomsadvice, initially financed by Oftel through its Small Business Task Force, with the support of the University of Sheffield under the EU funded Telerise project. You can contact us by email, or by completing our comments form.

Oftel's Small Business Task Force comprised UK small business organisations’ representatives and advisers, government agencies and telecoms and ICT companies including network operators, equipment manufacturers, software producers and maintenance contractors. From April 2000 to 2003 Oftel promoted this site to major telcos asking for sponsorship and subsidised any gaps in funding. Ofcom absorbed Oftel on 31st December 2003 and will not be supporting the site in the same way that Oftel did. TelecomsAdvice will continue with its impartial editorial policy while in future being funded by relevant non-invasive advertising sponsorship from UK telecom and ICT suppliers and the consultancy services of Crucible Multimedia Ltd .

The telecoms brokerage services through telecomsadvice.co.uk for mobile, fixed line and Broadband Internet are currently dormant pending sale of the websites/domains.

Reviewed February 2010

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Keywords and phrases for information on this site include the following (if there is no direct link or you want more or different information use the search facility at the top left): For the owners and managers of UK small businesses and SMEs. In layman's (layperson's) a guide to ICT applications in sales, marketing, administration, finance, PR, public relations, personnel, human resources, accounting, operations management, procurement, ordering, invoicing, intranet and extranet. Applications of telecommunications, telecoms, telecomms, telephone fixed line and mobile phones in small businesses. Impartial advice and reviews on Internet communications, information and communications technology and technologies (ICT), IP telephony, VOIP, Internet telephony. Telecomsadvice includes an ICT glossary, UK ICT products and services directory, reviews and cost comparisons. Covering such terms as customer relationship management (CRM) computer telephony integration (CTI) and VOIP. It includes a training supplier database and information on remote access telephone and lists phone service providers or operators, directory enquiries, telephone systems, exchanges, switchboards, pbx, pabx and centrex. Information on handsets, analogue, digital, PSTN, ISDN, cordless, DECT, wireless, mobile health, base station, GSM, GPRS, third generation 3G, UMTS. Broadband technologies such as xDSL, DSL, ADSL, RADSL, SDSL, HDSL, VDS, cable modem, two-way satellite, (or satelite or sattelite if you like) leased line. etc. Buyer's guides to direct and indirect telcos, carrier pre-selection (CPS).Conventions and legal regulations on numbers and  numbering, std code, junk fax, telephone sales and  selling, call centres and silent calls, direct marketing, fax preference service (FPS), telephone preference service (TPS), local, national, premium, personal, follow-me numbers and non-geographic numbers. Rates and tarrif or tariff comparison information and telecom broker services, charges, costs, including using your mobile phone abroad - international roaming, foreign coverage. Signal strength fluctuations, virtual locations, scams, security, anti-virus scanning and mobile phone ring tones, ringtones, tunes, logos, icons, graphics and games. Internet connectivity, connection, dial-up, always-on, FRIACO, unmetered, data bandwidth in kbps and Mbps, narrowband, video on demand, TV broadcast, radio frequency. File upload, download, web site pages, websites, webpages design and hosting, server co-location, search engine optimisation or optimization, spider, crawler, meta word data optimisation, domain name registration, DNS forwarding, cloaking, frame, reciprocal link, link exchange. Newsletter, email or e-mail, e-commerce m-commerce, e-business, on-line or online, hardware and software applications and solutions. Network router, local loop unbundling(LLU) or unbundled local loop (ULL) high speed data with videoconferencing, video surveillance, data and voice conferencing, teleconference or teleconferencing. Voice over Internet Protocol IP VoIP, textphone, text SMS, micro payments, reverse billing, sponsorship, publicity, promote or promotion, advertising and advert including banner and text ads or textads. Sponsors include BT, Cable & Wireless, Cellnet now O2, Colt, Hutchison 3G now '3', NTL, Orange, One2One now T-mobile, Telewest, Thus, Vodafone, MCI formerly Worldcom. UK ICT Directory, UK telecom, Oftel now Ofcom complaints, telecoms ombudsman arbitration by otelo and cisas. Geographic and non-geographic numbers and numbering 0870, 0871, 0845, 0750, 09 premium rate, revenue earning share PhonepayPlus formerly ICSTIS complaint procedure.

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