Telewest are encouraging businesses to switch from 0870 to 0844 and 0871.

http://www.telewest.co.uk/business/research_insights/announcements/nts_ofcom_changes/how_affect.html

~ Edit by Dave: Thread title amended

Quote:

0845 Current status: Equivalent to BT standard local rate (approx 3.95ppm). There may be no pence per minute cost for you for this service.(subject to volume). [...] 0870 Current status: National Rate - (equivalent to BT standard [highlight]national[highlight] rate approx 7.95ppm). There is no cost to you and you receive a portion of the revenue (subject to volume). After Ofcom implementation: Calls will be charged at local telecom providers normal national geographic rates. [...]

And then, near the bottom:

Quote:

Advertising and marketing Ofcom supports clearer call pricing information for consumers. For example 087 or 084 numbers should not be advertised as being charged at 'national' or 'local' call rates. [...]

So it's OK for NTL Telewest to 'market' these numbers as being local/national rate, but it's wrong for businesses to.  ::)

How about making any reference to local and national rates illegal, unless it's specifically referring to a package that charges different rates, like BT Light User Scheme.

It was inevitable these recommendations would happen.

OfcoN are totally aware that most if not all will just move over to 0844/0845/0871 instead.

I liked this quote from TW Business website:-


Quote:

Advertising and marketing Ofcom supports clearer call pricing information for consumers. For example 087 or 084 numbers should not be advertised as being charged at 'national' or 'local' call rates. What it means to you: Organisations will be required to highlight their call prices on all communications, websites and advertising etc. Recommendations: As good business practice, Telewest advises that all organisations should make their customers aware of their call charges. The ambiguity of some NTS tariffs has led many consumers to wrongly assume that they are being charged very high call rates

Which is fine and dandy (long time since I heard that word) but have a look at TW Contact Us page here and from it I quote:-


Quote:

Alternatively contact us on 0845 142 0220 (calls charged at local rates)...

It just makes you laugh sometimes!  Well if you didn't you would cry!


UPDATE:  Dave got in there before me!

As Dave points out, TW Business still advertise their 08x numbers as local and national.  This can be confirmed here.  No wonder all other companies just assume that 0845/0870 are local and national (respectively).

Does anyone know who is main person to contact with regards to this?

bbb_uk wrote on May 1^st, 2006 at 3:15pm:

It was inevitable these recommendations would happen. OfcoN are totally aware that most if not all will just move over to 0844/0845/0871 instead.

And it was also inevitable that Ofcon would deliberately dilly-dally to allow telcos and service providers to make changes to continue with all this.


Quote:

0870 [...] Recommendations: Call revenue is critical for many businesses as it is the way that they support 'free' services - such as telephone banking and help lines, to their customers. For these businesses, it makes sense to look at other NTS numbers that can offer revenue share rather than absorb losses. ntl:Telewest Business recommends that businesses move to either 0871 or 0844 numbers, depending on the level of return you require.

This word free again. They must be using a different definition to the one printed in my dictionary.


Quote:

Advertising and marketing [...] Recommendations: As good business practice, Telewest advises that all organisations should make their customers aware of their call charges. The ambiguity of some NTS tariffs has led many consumers to wrongly assume that they are being charged very high call rates.

The opposite is also true; for those who know for definate what NTS tariffs are, we are rightly disgusted at the [relatively] very high call rates.

Dave wrote on May 1^st, 2006 at 3:30pm:

This word free again. They must be using a different definition to the one printed in my dictionary

Yes, they are probably using the same one that states 084x/087x premium rate numbers are actually NOT premium rate numbers just because they don't start with 09x even though they earn the teleco and company revenue in return - just like 09x numbers!

Dave wrote on May 1^st, 2006 at 3:30pm:

Quote: Recommendations: Call revenue is critical for many businesses as it is the way that they support 'free' services - such as telephone banking and help lines, to their customers. For these businesses, it makes sense to look at other NTS numbers that can offer revenue share rather than absorb losses. ntl:Telewest Business recommends that businesses move to either 0871 or 0844 numbers, depending on the level of return you require. This word free again. They must be using a different definition to the one printed in my dictionary.

They are saying that the banking, or the help line, is provided free of charge other than the cost of the call.  It's not a different definition of free - it's a means of providing the service without other method of charging.