Interesting quote by John Petter,COO,BT Retail in yesterdays Sunday Telegraph in a lenghthy article about cheaper calls/line rental etc.

"Customers deserve a lot better than a lorry-load of small print buried into their contracts-and the over pricing of 0845 calls is a popular catch.We all use these numbers every day when we call the bank or rail enquiry lines.This all adds up and we believe the charging regime by the likes of Talk Talk amounts to a whopping £36m."


Unless the 0845 number is included in your calling circle.(one nominated number only).Talk Talk charge
Peak 4.50p.E&W.1.50p as opposed to BT,s Peak 3p and E&W 1P.

Another reason not to move your line rental from BT .

"Customers deserve a lot better than a lorry-load of small print buried into their contracts-and the over pricing of 0845 calls is a popular catch.We all use these numbers every day when we call the bank or rail enquiry lines.This all adds up and we believe the charging regime by the likes of Talk Talk amounts to a whopping £36m."

I think the Sunday Telegraph have missed missed 2 vital points, and slammed Talk Talk instead.

Firstly, although Talk Talk do charge more than BT for these numbers, it is not their fault that BT wholesale make a monopoly situation by making it unviable for companies to compete on NGN prices.  The only telco in include 0845 in their price plan is O2 on contract.

Secondly, as quoted "we all use these numbers every day", we do not choose to use those numbers, we would rather be using geographic numbers, and use this site for just this purpose.  It is the fault of the companies involved optiong for a NGN number in exchange for a rebate, or free telecom equipment, which should be paid for, rather than making the caller subsidise it.

Perhaps the Telegraph should investigate the bank and rail enquiry lines themselves, as to why they choose these numbers, instead of criticising telco companies for overcharging.  They seem to think 0845 is a normal rate call, and Talk Talk are overcharging.  These are premium rate numbers which generate revenue for the person receiving the call, and all Talk Talk are doing is collecting money on their behalf.

Having said that, I'm not a fan of Talk Talk, and won't be using their services anyway, and will continue my rental with BT, and hoping to soon change to Primus for my CPS, to use their free evening and weekend calls to landlines.

Shiggaddi wrote on Nov 21^st, 2005 at 3:35pm:

Firstly, although Talk Talk do charge more than BT for these numbers, it is not their fault that BT wholesale make a monopoly situation by making it unviable for companies to compete on NGN prices.

I don't think that BT have any wholesale monopoly on the supply of 0845 and 0870 numbers.

In fact other providers like Energis actually started using them while 0345 0645 and 0990 numbers were still in use, and it was the new competitiors' lower costs together with price-fixes that made revenue split originally possible.

I think I didn't make my last comment clearer

Firstly, although Talk Talk do charge more than BT for these numbers, it is not their fault that BT wholesale make a monopoly situation by making it unviable for companies to compete on NGN prices.  

What I meant was, BT wholesale have the monopoly on carrying these calls, on behalf on the customer who is calling them.  Since BT wholesale charge Talk Talk, and other indirect providers, to carry the call, at a much higher rate than geo numbers, then that is what stifles competition.

Also, as the telecoms company of the terminating operator receives around 5p per minute then it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out, that the person carrying the call has to make more than 5p per minute to avoid making a loss.