[edit]by Dave:
This thread continues a previous one on University of Manchester student accommodation here.[/edit]

We live in Belgium.   :)  
Until today, I had no idea about the 0870 nbrs but heard it on You and Yours (thank you Radio 4)!!
We have just received our phone bill - which had shot up horribly and now we know why! >:(   We are paying mobile phone prices when we phone our daughter.
My question is, if she phones us does the same thing apply? What rates is she being charged?  
Also, is it cheaper for her to have a monthly bill or to use the credit card ?  I'm afraid we are somewhat ignorant of the British phone system - things have changed a lot since we used to live there.
DMD

wrote on Nov 12^th, 2004 at 8:28pm:

...My question is, if she phones us does the same thing apply? What rates is she being charged? Also, is it cheaper for her to have a monthly bill or to use the credit card ?  I'm afraid we are somewhat ignorant of the British phone system - things have changed a lot since we used to live there. DMD

She will have to check with the supplier of the phone line for international rates.

What is the 0870 number you have? We can't promise anything, but there has been a sucess for Southampton university. Don't post the entire number, put ****'s for the last 4 digits.  :)

I've just had a quick look, and can't find details of the phone system used at Manchester. Please supply the 0870 number, and if possible tell us who the service provider is. There are many different student residences in Manchester, so they may not all be on the same system.

What I did find out while looking is that all student bedrooms have connections to the campus network. Therefore my suggestion is to use a service such as Skype (www.skype.com) to make calls over the internet. Then you don't have to pay anything other than your usual internet costs.

I didn't realise that 0870 numbers cost more to call from abroad than standard numbers. Do the unversities realise this? It's bad enough for overseas students who are prevented from using cheap call providers on the phone in their room, without forcing their families to pay a premium to call them too.

DMD says that the number in question starts 0870 839.

If we look at Ofcom's site (Ofcom is the UK phone regulator amongst other things), we see that these numbers are operated by Torch Communications. See Numbers administered by Ofcom and select 08 numbers.

Now look at the geographical numbers to see what prefixes on the Manchester code (0161) Torch operate. They are:
0161 134
0161 138
0161 615
0161 636
0161 638

Try putting the last four digits of the 0870 number onto these prefixes.

If you can provide information on who provides the phone that would be useful. There must be pricing information somewhere, maybe on the internet.

Torch is a trading name of Kingston Communications, and the number is also very similar to Opal Court in Leicester, where the phone system is also run by Kingston. Hopefully we'll have similar success in Manchester!

If it's one of the 0161 1xx numbers, though, you might be out of luck...

The SkypeOut way of communicating looks VERY interesting indeed.  8)
My husband wants to study it now on the website and we shall probably take that option, since my daughter does not have a pc at the moment. Even to call her on her mobile using this system is incredibly cheap. :)
Thanks very much for directing us to it.  
Thx
DMD

Dear Dave
I checked those nbrs you gave me and followed your instructions - all were unobtainable except for the 615 - a voice came on warning me it was a premium line and charges would show on my bill and then it was straight into a sex chat line :-[ I put the phone down double quick! :o
Then I looked up the main Hall of residence nbr which is 0161 -224****  Is that of any help?  
I tried looking at the Excel spreadsheet from Ofcom which you suggested but I'm afraid I don't actually understand what I am looking at or what I am supposed to be looking for.  Sorry to be so thick - I couldn't really make head nor tail of it.  
My daughter confirms the phone company IS Kingston Communications and she is in the process of querying outgoing call prices - though she thinks they are normal.
But my husband and I are very interested in the SkypeOut facility that Jonathan mentioned and it looks like we may well go for that.
Thx a lot for all the interest shown in our query - we much appreciate that there is somebody out there who is concerned about these things.  
DMD

It's likely that the number you are looking for is one of the 0116 1xx numbers. These were discussed in the thread "National dialling only numbers..." among others. To summarise, they appear to be unavailable when dialled directly for technical reasons.

If you dialled an 0161 number and obtained an adult chat line, you won't have been paying a premium rate. It sounds as if you've found the geographical number that an 09 number points to! Some people would probably pay you to give them this number  ;)

Don't worry about the Ofcom spreadsheet. Dave found you all the relevant numbers from there. If you tried those and they didn't work, it must be one of the 1xx numbers.

Hope Skype is useful anyway!

More numbers to try... these were allocated to Kingston last month, so probably too late to be in use at the university. But you never know!

0161 135
0161 144
0161 822


A useful site is http://www.ukphoneinfo.com. (Go to "code locator") This contains the data from the Ofcom spreadsheet, but is more user-friendly, and is kept up to date!

Southampton university was found to be using numbers from another area code and not the Southampton code.

Ask your daughter if the pricing information is on the internet and post the link.

(I'm duplicating my posting from another Manchester/UMIST question)

When I was a student there, all UMIST extensions (including payphones in student accommodation) were 0161 200 xxxx. They have built many new halls since I left, but these applied to Wright Robinson, Chandos, Grosvenor, Bowden and Ronson in the immediate area of the UMIST campus, plus a few others further out from the centre.

Even if all student rooms have their own phone nowadays, I can't see that they would have used all 9999 possible numbers yet, so there would be no pressing need to change (apart from the offer of some fancy bit of supposedly free kit from a supplier of 0870 numbers!)

Manchester University was less uniform, but many of its central functions and some student halls were 0161 275 xxxx. Many of the Fallowfield halls and sports facilities were 0161 224 xxxx

Unfortunately I don't know whether their phone systems have changed since I last spoke to anyone there (2002), but these may be worth a try. I have obtained answerphones this evening on some UMIST 0161 200 xxxx numbers which I still possess.

Graham

When they introduce 0870, they do change the geographical number to prevent people from using it (many people would do this without thinking if they were familiar with the old numbers, even if they weren't aware that 0870 is a rip-off). Often they change the number to a "national dialling" number, i.e. a local number starting with 0 or 1.

Note from my other post that universities are considered public bodies for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act. Therefore you can request that they tell you the geographical number, and they can't refuse (and anyone in the world can ask, not just someone at the university). As it will only take a member of staff a short time to find the number, it'll cost much less than the ~ £400 limit, so they can't charge either!

There have been lots of postings about the obligation of public bodies to disclose their geographic phone numbers underlying their 0870 numbers under the FOI Act.

Does anyone know of a precedent where a public body has actually done so?

I believe the DVLA has done so, following a long-running battle where they refused to give anyone the number. Once the FOI Act was in place, they had no choice!

Very interested to read this thread; we were horrified last week to find an 0870 telephone in son's room at Hall in Manchester. The cynicism!
Have discovered that one can be put through to the room using the geographical telephone number for the Hall's office (you can find the relevant number by going to www.accommodation.manchester.ac.uk/universityresidences/ and following the links to the relevant hall) - certainly works for the Grosvenor group of Halls (0161 306 3232) .
When I spoke to the office the person who answered told me 'I am not allowed to give you the number (sic), but I can put you through. ' and did so.

hi......

i live in opal fairfield halls university of manchester......can any provide me with the alternate number of 0870832      my extension number is 869

any luck and dave can u please delete my enquiry forum

Using the extension number from this post (before you edited it,) and using your original "enquiry" post, it seems that the 0870 numbers are 0870 832 32xx and your extension number is 86932yy where xx and yy are the same.  Since both numbers end with the same four digits, this is a very useful piece of information, as it will help tie up any numbers we find.  It shouldn't really have taken so much effort to say this ...

0870 832 is registered to Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd.  (Previously Torch / Kingston, as noted earlier in this thread.)

Affinity also have 0161 numbers in the ranges (and dates allocated to them)
0161 134    12/2002
0161 135    10/2004
0161 138    12/2003
0161 144    10/2004
0161 615    11/1998
0161 636    09/2001
0161 638    12/2002
0161 822    10/2004
0161 825    08/2008
0161 885    08/2008

It's very possible the number will be in one of these ranges, and very probably you can find it just by adding 32xx to one of them.  Please try this and let us know what happens.

no i have tried all the numbers and non- of them worked .....can u give me more numbers

guys   can u please find me the number its very urgent.....the call from my country is very expensive.....can u please find me the alternate number

There are 474 geographical prefixes across the UK allocated to Affiniti. There's no guarantee that there is an alternative number to be found.

If there is an alternative number, there is no guarantee that it will end with the last four digits of the extension number. It may be shifted by so many thousand or even hundreds and thousands, i.e. only the last two digits may be the same.

The area code with by and far the greatest number of Affiniti number blocks in is 0113 (Leeds) where there are 36:

1130      40            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      (0)+10      04/1996      
1130      41            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      (0)+10      04/1996      
1130      42            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      (0)+10      04/1996      
1130      43            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      (0)+10      04/1996      
1130      51            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      (0)+10      07/1999      
1130      52            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      (0)+10      07/1999      
1130      74            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      (0)+10      07/2005      
1130      75            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      (0)+10      07/2005      
1130      76            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      (0)+10      04/1996      
1130      77            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      (0)+10      09/2004      
1130      78            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      (0)+10      09/2004      
1132      07            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      09/1997      
1132      13            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      08/1995      
1132      22            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      03/1995      
1132      23            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      03/1995      
1132      27            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      05/1997      
1132      97            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      07/1994      
1133      33            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      10/2003      
1133      34            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      10/2003      
1133      36            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      03/2002      
1133      43            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      01/2002      
1133      44            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      01/2002      
1133      46            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      03/2001      
1133      48            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      12/2002      
1133      64            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      10/2003      
1133      67            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      05/1999      
1133      69            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      05/2000      
1133      76            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      07/2005      
1133      78            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      07/2005      
1133      83            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      04/1998      
1133      84            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      04/1998      
1133      98            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      04/1998      
1133      99            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      09/1997      
1138      45            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      08/2008      F-Digit '2,3,4,5,'
1138      81            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      08/2008      F-Digit '2,3,4,5'
1138      82            Allocated            Affiniti Integrated Solutions Ltd      3+7      08/2008      F-Digit '2,3,4,5'



Perhaps you should see what other ways you can speak with your family and friends back home, such as a VoIP service using your internet connection.