Phone Calls on Det

[mbga9pgf]

Having got sick to the back teeth of oly recieving 20 measly minutes to ring home whilst on Det, (yeah cheers tone, good to see you socialists are in full support of giving prisoners 40 minutes a week still whilst we sweat on det) in addition get screwed royally to line the coffers of paradyne (a crap contract that only the MOD could have signed up to), I did a little researching on the net.

It appears this company https://www.telestial.com/view_product.php?PRODUCT_ID=MSIM-EX01

offers SIM cards that work almost anywhere in the globe, plus, in combination with this company http://www.telediscount.co.uk/index2.php can mean recieving calls from home for as little as 10p a minute in Basrah. Not bad. Question is, has any one else used them or anyone else, and is the service up to scratch before I part with £30?

Cheers.

[dantura]

I use telediscount all the time...saves a fortune. There is no catch, the calls just get billed to your normal landline. Remember to add VAT to the cost thats advertised, cause your home company will.:ok:

I don't work for them BTW.;)

Don't know about the other co. though sry.

regards

[trilander]

Do not know if this is any good to you. Here in third world North London you can buy a prepaid phone card for discount rates from uk to anywhere in the world, face value a fiver but often dicounted to 3.00pds, the amount of call time depends on destination. you call uk 0800 no plus pin code plus dest No.

calls to Africa seems about 100 min for three pound,

if your nearest & dearest can call from home it may work out better.

[southside]

I remember a time when you didn't get any free calls. Times have changed and now the MOD generously provide us with 20 minutes free phone calls. Which actually is very generous... must cost a bloomin fortune...maybe thats where all our pay rise is going.. If we forfeit the 20 min phone call can we have the money instead?

My experience of free phone calls is mixed however. It all depends on what time zone your in...Its of no use telephoneing the kids at 3.30 am on a school day...so the last time I was deployed I rarely made a free phone call....used to wait until we were alongside and use the trusty mobile.



Mon Langue est au lit mon toupet

[PTT]

And every meal's a banquet, eh southside? You are the kind of blinkered idiot who feeds those above us what they want to hear rather than the facts.
Fact - we get 20 minutes for serving Her Majesty, while those serving at Her Majesty's pleasure will be getting double that if the government gets its way. How about our pay rise comes out of the telephone allowance of the scroats in prison instead?

[airborne_artist]

Times have changed and now the MOD generously provide us with 20 minutes free phone calls. Which actually is very generous... must cost a bloomin fortune.

Knowing the way the MoD procures it probably does cost a fortune. It could be done using VoIP for pennies - which is why the call-shops in the more ethnic parts of our cities are thriving and able to charge so little. I still don't get why the FI, for example, can't have a wi-fi network for the troops to use off duty - charged via a monthly sub/pre-paid card.

[southside]

exactly...thats a brilliant idea...why cant the FI have that....






PTT...you clearly didnt involve yourself in any education whilst at school....or were you the boy at the back....


The comment at the end is in French BTW....should you need any help recognising it.......Duh !

[5.0]

My personal favourite is when the old dolly at Whitehall connects an incoming call to the welfare phone just as your 20 minutes start. Invariably "Sir" at the other end will not hang up without a time consuming argument about how important he is.

I can feel the sap rising even now...

[Tombstone]

Can't believe that it's taken me 2 weeks to work out that southside is a complete knob!

[Green Flash]

I have used Banana cards in Afgh. I can't remember the exact price but they were avbl at KAIA (AF1), seemed to last forever and didn't break the bank.:ok:

[southside]

Cant beleive that you lot can't go on a det without wanting someone to wipe yr backsides whilst your away....your supposed to be detaching to a operational area not a bloomin creche....

On my last det we didn't get 20 Mins per week we got 10 mins per week.....but only if you made your slot. For Instance, there was 1 phone...and 240 of us to use it during the week...so each department was allocated a day...and my departments day was Sundays... My time on a sunday was 2100 which in the UK was 04.0 am..on Monday morning.... Fat lot of good that was... So why cant we have more phones and rather than being allocated 20 minutes, why cant we have whatever we want...? we'll pay for it...its not difficult? Just give us more phones to phone home with. Im sure BT or Vodafone or someone would like to get in on this, there has to be a profit in it.


Mon Langue est au lit mon toupet

[Green Flash]

Tombstone.

I see what you mean.

[The Gorilla]

I say again,
just ignore him over.

[PTT]

southside, ad hominems aside I really don't see you have an argument other than "it was worse in my day." That may well be the case, but the reason things have got better is that people have pushed for them to get better, and the more people keep pushing the better they will get still. Basically, if you think things are fine, put up and shut up, but don't have a go at people for trying to improve their lot. Morale really is quite important in the military,you know.

[southside]

I know morale is quite important and currently it is running pretty high in my lot, but like the fella said, Why not use "telediscount"...it works a treat...

[mbga9pgf]

Err, which phone are we supposed to get the missus to ring into then? hardly going to go to the nearest payphone outside the wire are we now southside? Simple fact is, there is nowhere for them to ring into. Broadband wireless internet would have been a solution with Skype, as sugested, yet the mod went along with Parodynes Sat mega expensive option. Bloody stupid, or more likely, a typical example of how PFI is supposed to be revoplutionising the way we go to work.

My original point was that the scum that occupy prisons seem to have a higher social value than the armed forces that instigate the nations will. Hardly morale-inspiring. IF you think things are getting better, you better have a chat with some of those still serving, have a good look at Pay as you starve, stretched manning levels, overstretched assets. all I can see is, pre 1991 you old farts sat round in a hangar all day long waiting for a war that never happened. I could only dream of such a lifestyle.

[Mr C Hinecap]

If southside is in any position of responsibility, then I don't think much of his drills. Welfare of the lads is the priority of anyone in such a position - half your crappy allowance on a fixed timescale isn't welfare.

The chaps that worked for me got better than that because they deserved their minimum and I did the right thing to get that. Take responsibility, or sit on a forum & bleat.

[Had Enough 77]

Southside, have you thought of putting in a gems idea for those rose-tinted spectacles that you seem to wear all the time to be given out as standard issue. It would save the MOD a fortune in having to pay for things such as 20 minutes of phone calls to boost morale for all the lads on det. Mind you you would loose all the fun times you have on this forum making a complete and utter c:mad:k of yourself.

Kind Regards

Had enough 77 :)

[cobaltfrog]

Good job youre not on a Sub because then you would get nothing outbound for months and 40 words from the family a week!

Thank the Good Lord for volunteers to do that job!!

[Annie More-Flak]

By not reinventing the wheel every time there's a new man in charge the money saved could surely add another 10 mins per person per week on the phone card. After all 10 mins on some of the bad lines from the Gulf equals 5mins after the repeating and time delays! Just about enough time for the kids to update Dad on football match this week and the forthcoming Ballet exam. Must be one of the simplest allowances to boost morale both for the guys in the field and us left at home.

[santiago15]

PTT...you clearly didnt involve yourself in any education whilst at school....or were you the boy at the back....


The comment at the end is in French BTW....should you need any help recognising it.......Duh !

Nice to see you've a good grasp of the French language, Southside. Your grasp of the English language, though, is sadly lacking. I guess when grammar lessons were taking place YOU were the boy at the back.

S15

Thanks Safety Helmet - I've had a word

[Safety_Helmut]

You're grasp of the English language:eek:

S_H

[Tigs2]

Southside
You have the most amazing ability to really f:mad: k people off. Actually i for one do not understand your witterings on in french you smart a:mad: e. I do however speak Arabic and Thai (the first is a lot more useful on det). Does it also make me a 'Duh' because i dont understand what you are saying?? I dispair that you may be in any position of line management. I was wondering why you were always allocated the 4a.m slot for calling UK mmm actually it all makes sense:)

[PTT]

I know morale is quite important and currently it is running pretty high in my lot, but like the fella said, Why not use "telediscount"...it works a treat...

You rlot must be civvy then. It would explain an awful lot.

We should not be put in a position where we have to use telediscount while the criminals who are locked up for the good of society get twice as much air time as us.

This is not merely about what the government thinks we are worth (which is clearly bugger all), but what the government thinks we are worth compared to people they have locked up.

[BEagle]

Perhaps they consider that, as you earn a lot more money than those locked up in clink, perhaps you might be able to afford the odd phone call to supplement your 'free' 20 minute call?

Not my opinion, incidentally!

Are these calls still free only to the UK?

I remember the Paradigm-phone fiasco in Incirlik. Has it improved at all yet?

[PTT]

I fail to see the relevance of how much I earn with respect to whether or not I should get more time on the phone. Taking that argument, though, surely a Private should get a greater allowance than a General?

[southside]

My point is that rather than mank and moan about these generous allowances you should be grateful. Many servicemen are on Operations now and they don't have access to a phone. Submarines don't have phones, Warships get one if they are lucky..and thats to go around 240 blokes....

I was once stood on a hardstanding watching a C130 unload a team of Soldiers and the first thing off was a mahooosive Plasma TV with the biggest sat dish you could fit in a Herc.... We sat and watched in amazement as the boys rigged the TV up.... Real TV...you boys are just so lucky.

[BEagle]

But you have sooo much more fun bobbing up and down on the briny in your little grey war canoe, whittling your scrimshaw and enjoying a twist of rough shag in between sippers and gulpers of Pusser's rum, don't you? Advanced knot-tying and dancing the hornpipe are surely more up your street than watching BFBS plasma screen TV?

Hang on......??

[Testingtheseatlimit]

Come on Guys. Southside is clearly a wind-up merchant to whom you are all giving so much pleasure. Just ignore him and he will probably go away! I feel too many threads are being spoilt by people rising to his bait!!!!!

[SlipperySlappery]

I know morale is quite important and currently it is running pretty high in my lot

Southside,

Napoleon said that the moral is to the physical as 4 is to 1. Now I know that you know lots more about the conduct of war than him so perhaps we should change our doctrine books to reflect your great dictum: 'Morale is quite important'. Alternatively, we should just all recognise you as the tw@t that you are and ignore you as suggested above.

Seatlimit - sorry, you are probably right.

SS

[BEagle]

"I feel too many threads are being spoilt by people rising to his bait!!!!!"

He is indeed a master baiter!

[Tombstone]

PPRUNE moderators,

is there a function on this site that allows us to 'ignore' i.e. not see any posts from anyone who bores you whilst trying to offend as many people as possible?

If not, may I suggest a software upgrade to Microsoft 'Tw@t remover V1.1'?

Kind regards,

Tombstone.

[Out Of Trim]

Tombstone

Yes - Here:-

http://www.pprune.org/forums/usercp.php

scroll to the bottom - ignore lists

Although you'll see he's posted something and just have to know what?

[SirPercyWare-Armitag]

Testing is right - just ignore southside - another adminguru....
As for 'phone calls from theatre, I have always given my paradigm cards to the nearest squaddie. Personally, I always make my calls home using a military line. As far as I am concerned, Bliar sends me sausageside, therefore, he understands that I need to talk to my family, banks, utility companies whilst I am away and therefore he acknowledges that the state will pay. All my calls are service calls as far as I am concerned. Why, even last week, some family in Shropshire had the audacity to pay the rent and deny me the pleasure of evicting their working class presence from one of my properties. Luckily, with a service call home on a patron line, I was able to increase the rent and get them into court on a default of payment charge. Jolly good fun, especially as the father was ex-Royal Navy. One of those awful vermin who think aircraft carriers are relevant

[snaggletooth]

Cant beleive that you lot can't go on a det without wanting someone to wipe yr backsides whilst your away....your supposed to be detaching to a operational area not a bloomin creche....


Cant Can't beleive believe that you lot can't go on a det without wanting someone to wipe yr backsides whilst your you're away....your you're supposed to be detaching to a operational area not a bloomin creche....

Perhaps if you had paid a little more attention to your English classes rather than French you wouldn't be such a Gimlet Southside

[The Gorilla]

I say again and again
Just ignore him over..

Otherwise conversation continues...

:confused: