This follows from the below topic...
BIRD FLU REPORTING

The Mail on Sunday has published an article on P15 about the 0845 number which cost 75p for a 2 1/2 minute call to report a dead starling.  I'll try and link to it in a while, for those of you who didn't but the Mail today - I bought it for the 10,000 points voucher available for test-driving a new Ford... ;D

Update

I have now located the online articles - sorry for the delay  ;)  Both articles appear together in today's paper.  

Revealed: how callers to the bird flu hotline pay triple the national rate

One dead starling, two-and-a-half minutes on the phone and a 75p bill

Smasher 8-)

How can an 0845 number be charged at 30p per minute (I assume they mean from a BT line) as the Mail article alleges?
Also, aren't all revenue-sharing calls over 10p per min meant to be on 09 numbers regulated by ICSTIS?

Did OfCom really say:

Quote:

"Do they want people to call? Charging for a number is actually a disincentive to call it. There are some services where it is appropriate for them to charge for services but in our view, not many."

as reported?
Doesn't sound like OfCom!!

This must have been a mobile they were calling from, surely!

But it goes to show that the author of that article appears not to understand that it's not the government that sets the rate for that 0845 inparticular, but it depends on what the provider charges.

The international alternative is 020 7238 6951 and goes through to the same menu as the 0845 number.

The first article says that the helpline is answered in Workington.

trevord wrote on Apr 16^th, 2006 at 2:25pm:

How can an 0845 number be charged at 30p per minute (I assume they mean from a BT line) as the Mail article alleges? Also, aren't all revenue-sharing calls over 10p per min meant to be on 09 numbers regulated by ICSTIS?

All 0845 numbers are charged at the same single peak daytime rate to BT Together customers and another single peak daytime rate to BT "Standard" rate customers who are in fact totally non standard and on its "Light User" scheme.  The only difference is that some 0845 numbers qualify for Friends and Family discount and others do not.  The other difference is in the Off Peak rates for 0845 which are violently more expensive than BT Option 1's 6p for 1 hour.

As to costing 30p per minute this can only be achieved on a Pay As You Go mobile phone as on a BT landline the most they will cost you are either 3p per minute in the day time on BT Standard and 4p per minute on BT Options 1, 2 and 3.   Of course if you call the 0845 number on BT Option 3 for 15 minutes and pay 45p that's still infinity percent more than if the call could have been made using an 01 or 02 number for free on BT Option 3.

These two women reportesr are clearly not clued up or informed like the Mail's two regular telecoms reporters (Sean Poulter and Dennis Rice) who know exactly what they are talking about.

Of course the cost of calling an 0845 number on a mobile with many providers compared to what the call would have cost to an 01/02 number is still a cause for massive outrage.  For instance on my Vodafone SmartStep tariff a 30 minute offpeak call to an 01/02 number will cost 15p but a 30 minute call to an 0845 number will be £3.00 or 1,900% more!

As to useless wasters, liars and permed hair do wearers Ofcom, who are apparently quoted as saying

Quote:

it wants to stop the practice of 0845 numbers being advertised as 'local rate' - because 0870 and 0845 numbers can cost nearly three times as much as a national or local call.

then why does the said entirely bloody useless, deceitful and hijacked regulatory organsiation not use its "backstop powers" under the Telecommunications Act 2003 to prevent telecoms providers such as BT from still listing 0845 numbers as being "Lo-Call" on every one of its phone bills.

Either Ofcom are totally incompetent (unlikely) or they are two faced liars and charlatans who are at the back of allowing all these scams to continue whilst pretending that they they actually care if a newspaper telephones them to get a quote.

~ Edited by Dave: Fixed quote box

Could it be that someone has misplaced the decimal point?
B T option 1 daytime  0845 2½ minute call costs 7.5p,  but if you forget the . it will look like 75p ::)

derrick wrote on Apr 17^th, 2006 at 10:58am:

Could it be that someone has misplaced the decimal point? B T option 1 daytime  0845 2½ minute call costs 7.5p,  but if you forget the . it will look like 75p ::)

I agree derrick, it sounds as though the decimal point has been missed off - it would obviously explain the 30 (3.0p) as well.  Either that, or it they are referring to calls from mobiles!

derrick wrote on Apr 17^th, 2006 at 10:58am:

Could it be that someone has misplaced the decimal point? B T option 1 daytime  0845 2½ minute call costs 7.5p,  but if you forget the . it will look like 75p ::)

This happens a lot in hospitals - you'd be surprised how many nurses but more worryingly, doctors, can't multiply/divide by 10, 100, 1000 without moving the decimal point the "wrong way".   :o

Oh well, I suppose it's a headline in our favour... :-?

We can't be too mad at the authors - the article was written by two women, after all... ;D :D ;)  

(private joke)

"We can't be too mad at the authors - the article was written by two women, after all...      

(private joke) "

Be careful of what you say. They were inflating the size of the item for our benefit!
You ask any woman - size does matter ;D

a very nice man wrote on Apr 18^th, 2006 at 10:10pm:

Be careful of what you say. They were inflating the size of the item for our benefit! You ask any woman - size does matter ;D

I think you may be straying dangerously into not such a nice man territory here. ;)

Speaking of which although you seem to have made many sensible contributions so far to this forum I wonder what persuaded you to pick a forum name likley to be such an obvious hostage to fortune and/or so easily open to potential criticism? :-?

Certainly when I am dealing with Ofcom the last thing I want to be thought of as being is "nice".  Tough, strong-minded, determined, opinionated, committed ,relenteless and so on yes but Nice with Ofcom is a complete No No as Ofcom and all its telecoms industry cronies simply walk on people who might perhaps be described as merely being nice! :o

********  ALERT  ***********

**** TEMPORARY NAME CHANGE ****

*** A VERY NICE MAN IS TO BE FORMALLY KNOWN AS "MAD (YOU LOOKING AT ME?)RIP YOUR THROAT OUT, AXE MAN ***

*** THIS IS ONLY A TEMPORARY WHILE HE DEALS WITH OFCOM, GADDAFFI, BLAIR AND THE GIRLFRIEND'S MOTHER ***

(Second thoughts, we'll leave her mother out of this, I'd rather face Gaddaffi!)

I added a comment on the bottom of the page Revealed: How callers to the bird flu hotline pay triple the national rate and e-mailed one of the authors saying that the 30p/min is misleading and that they might like to print the international alternative I posted above. This has not appeared on the page, and neither have I received a response.

wrote on Apr 18^th, 2006 at 10:20pm:

I think you may be straying dangerously into not such a nice man territory here. ;) I wonder what persuaded you to pick a forum name likley to be such an obvious hostage to fortune

On a related topic, NGM, I've often wondered why you are Non-Geographical Man - which could imply you are in favour of non-geographical numbers - rather than Geographical Man!   ;D ;D

trevord wrote on Apr 19^th, 2006 at 9:19pm:

On a related topic, NGM, I've often wondered why you are Non-Geographical Man - which could imply you are in favour of non-geographical numbers - rather than Geographical Man!   ;D ;D

Aha you have picked on my achilles heel although I don't think NonGeographicalMan is quite as inherenty loaded with perjorative meaning and antagonism provoking values as aVeryNiceMan tends to be.

The name was picked to express the fact that I at that stage seemed to spend my whole life being confronted by a requirement to call these NonGeographical numbers every day (despite Ofcom's and OFTEL's assurances that they were only used by a small number of special value added services) and thus I truly felt that I was indeed that NonGeographicalMan!  NonGeographicalMan is not a character who likes NonGeographical Numbers but rather one who hates them with such a passion that his life is consumed by them and thus forcing him ironically to turn into that NonGeogaphicalMan for whom his whole existence is dedicated to the war with NonGeographical numbers.

Perhaps with the benefit of hindsight I should have adopted the forum name of simply SayNoTo0870 but anyhow its all too long ago now with nearly 2,000 posts in the forum and the die is now cast and cannot be changed.