Rategate Service & Help

Dear user,
Rategate.com wants you to make a well educated caller. We want you to find and navigate through the telecommunication jungle. Thus we tried to collect many usefull infos concerning telecommunication issues. We continously try to collect all telecommunication data to help you explain all the different telecommunication terms. One example is your telphone bill. You will find tons of different terms, rates and prices allthough you really do not understand what you should pay for. If you navigate through our help and service section, you will find a lot of explanation for all those terms. Please feel free to navigate through Rategate and make yourself a well educated caller.

Telecom helpdesk

Get informed about:

Understanding your phone bill / Monthly fees & charges

10-10 Dial-Around information

Dial-around is a service offered by many long distance carriers that allows you to access their network without having to switch primary carriers. In North America, a carrier is assigned a unique seven digit code. If someone wishes to bypass his primary carrier he must dial this seven digit code before dialing a telephone number.
Dialing Examples:

For calls within the US & Canada
dial 10-10-xxx + 1 + area code + number
For international calls to countries that use country codes
dial 10-10-xxx + 011 + country code + number
For international calls to countries that use area codes
dial 10-10-xxx + 1 + area code + number

The call will then be routed to the carrier that is associated with that code. Thus, the customer is "dialing around" his primary carrier. A customer can use these codes to his advantage. Suppose someone is happy with his primary carrier and is paying for a plan which offers him excellent savings to the destinations he calls most often. He can then use dial-around to call other destinations that are cheaper than the primary carrier without the expense and burden of changing carriers and dialing PIN numbers.
Of course one must be careful, as many of these carriers have "hidden" charges such as per-call access fees, monthly fees and other fees that make the price of the call less economical than usually advertised.

Bundled local & long distance service plans

Wireless local number portability

Prepaid Phone / Calling card scams

Illegal slamming

PIC Information

How to..

Free consumer Telecom service advice

F.A.Q.