Can anyone please list some telcos that do not support calls to 0844 numbers.  I know of two - 18866 and 1899 and I'm aware there are a number of VOIP carriers. In particular, some CPS carriers would be very useful. I need this information to prove to my doctors' surgery and to their Primary Care Trust that 0844 numbers are not universally accessible, even from within the UK.

OneTel only support some of them (see HERE) - and charge 10% more than BT for the ones they do allow access to.

wrote on Jul 25^th, 2005 at 6:58pm:

...and charge 10% more than BT for the ones they do allow access to.

I'm guessing that is because they've become aware of what most of these 0844 numbers are being used for.  Once the other carriers realise this they'll also increase their charges as well.

It is really only BT that cant change their prices as they wish otherwise they risk having OfCOM on their back.

wrote on Jul 25^th, 2005 at 6:27pm:

I need this information to prove to my doctors' surgery and to their Primary Care Trust that 0844 numbers are not universally accessible, even from within the UK.

Why not just concentrate on the angle of how many poorer customers now use Pay as You Go mobile phones and that the operators of these networks charging between 30p and 50p per minute for these calls compared to only 5p to 10p per minute for ordinary calls that start 01 or 02.

Also what about BT Payphones (used by the very poorest and oldest) which charge 30p for a 15 minute call to an 01 or 02 number but £2.05 for calling an 0844 NEG number.

And what about BT Option 3 customers who would pay 75p for NEG's 0844 number compared to nothing for an 01 or 02 number.  And what about 0844 costing 5p a minute on a Saturday morning to call compared to just 1.5p per minute for an 0870 number.

wrote on Jul 25^th, 2005 at 6:27pm:

...I need this information to prove to my doctors' surgery and to their Primary Care Trust that 0844 numbers are not universally accessible, even from within the UK.

It may be best to email OfCOM ask them are other operators other than BT required to carry 0844 calls and whether or not they know of any operators that may not carry all possible carriers.

That way you have in writing from OfCOM themselves otherwise you would have to email all the providers like OneTel/TalkTalk, NTL, Telewest, etc and have them state whether or not they allow access to all 0844 numbers.

Even http://www.magsys.co.uk/telecom/residx.htm don't show 0844 and 0871 call prices for each operator so I'm not sure where you could get this information.

This is another reason why Ofcom's fantasy world of price competitition caused by more information on the cost of calling these numbers is a pipe dream.