[Janetw]

Can I get Broadband from anyone apart from PCCW ? and how good a service will i get ??

I have had enough of my telephone line and spam faxes to it a\despite being on a do not call list. Am prob going to terminate my contract with them cos they are pretty useless.

Not before I have joined all the faxes together with intermittent black pieces of paper and will fax them to every PCCW fax number I can get my hands on over CNY.... see how they like it. My own little protest will at least make me feel a lillte better !!!

[KnowItAll]

We used to be with Netfront.Net, until we switched to Now, because of the broadband TV.

Fully recommend them.

Not sure if you have choices with their broadband TV if you switch ISPs.. or if you will need to keep multiple phone lines (one for the TV -- via Now and the second for your general phone line / internet access).

[KnowItAll]

Will have to wait for our resident PCCW expert to show up and offer more suggestions...

[PDLM]

I'm confused as to how you think changing your broadband supplier will stop you getting calls on your phone line? Even changing your phone line supplier isn't going to make any difference unless you change your phone number (the people calling you don't know and don't care what phone company you get service from).

First try *76 on your phone line - this will stop all anonymous calls. Having done this I get an insignificant number of spam calls, and no spam faxes despite having had a listed phone number for 8 years.

(It's the "Block the Blocker" service: http://www.pccw.com/eng/Products/For...e-Blocker.html )

Beyond that, what exactly would you like your telephone supplier to do? Do you want to give them a list of all the phone numbers which you will accept calls from and to block all the rest or what?

[KnowItAll]

>> I'm confused as to how you think changing your broadband
>> supplier will stop you getting calls on your phone line?

I think the desired result of the project is to stop doing business directly with PCCW.

Like it or not .. we all make such choices which may not make sense to others. I'm sure you've made many such choices in your lifetime... which if discussed would not make sense.

[Janetw]

As PCCW don't appear to be able to do anything except a password service and basically have do not disturb on my phone permenantly which I have to PAY EXTRA for !!!

Am thinking about cancelling the exixting contract and only having broadband for my computer and using our mobiles to make and receive calls. The point as KIA said is not stop doing business with PCCW.

98% of calls I get are to my mobile and 98% of calls to my land line are sales or fax calls. Just really fed up with the service received. PCCW suggested i change my number but added they could not guarantee i would not get spam calls.

[discobay]

Janetw, you need to make sure that your new broadband provider will allow you to sign up without a landline number. A friend of mine had a problem when he cancelled his.

[PDLM]

And how do you suggest any telephone provider can guarantee to stop spam calls? I'm genuinely curious to hear your proposals on how you think this might be possible?

Have you actually tried the "block the blocker" feature? It works for me.

[discobay]

Block the blocker is fine but useless if the spammer is happy to reveal their (often unusable) number.

[Janetw]

Block the blocker from my understanding only blocks calls from numbers where the number is not displayed ?? I have had calls from numbers that are displayed on my caller ID as long distance and answered because I thought they were from family.I have had calls from numbers which display their number - except when you try to call them back you don't get a reply.- and have a pile of faxes from numbers that you can not fax back to or call to get taken off the list.
...... Also if my husband calls from work or my bank call the number is generally not shown so I would not get these calls.... And you still have to pay for the service.

If I were to pay for a service them I would use the password do not disturb service but i don't see why there is such a problem having an 'unlisted' number here. In the UK i was ex-directory and can not even remember getting a spam call.

Clearly the best way is not to have a telephone line into the apartment...... I just need to find internet only service....