Just when you thought the issue of non-geographic numbers and phone call charge scamming couldn't get any worse, it turns out the BBC is scamming consumers even more than they realise. Did you know that the text number for BBC News 24 will cost you up to 25p to text?

http://www.smstextnews.com/2007/04/07624_is_billed_by_three_and_t-mobile_as_an_international_text.html


Quote:

07624* is billed by Three and T-Mobile as an international text? [...] The 07624 UK number range is operated by Manx Telecom — the Isle of Man telecoms company. [...] Even the BBC News 24’s operates 07624 800 100.

Judging by the comments, it seems that Ofcon can't do anything about it because the Isle of Man isn't part of the UK... despite them having the geographic area code 01624, and the mobile area code 07624.

Did you bother to check to see if things had changed,since that post. ;)

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/2780295.stm

That only talks about MMSes, not text messages.

According to this PDF (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/04_06_07_bbc_news_booklet.pdf) they still use that for "international" text messages, but have replaced it with the short code 61124 in the UK. However, no published price for sending texts or images to that number...

And in any case, the point of sending an MMS over an SMS is for pictures. In any case it will usually be cheaper to pay data charges to send the picture from a mobile phone by attaching it to an email and sending via GPRS or 3G.

jgxenite wrote on Jul 25^th, 2007 at 4:53pm:

Just when you thought the issue of non-geographic numbers and phone call charge scamming couldn't get any worse, it turns out the BBC is scamming consumers even more than they realise. Did you know that the text number for BBC News 24 will cost you up to 25p to text? http://www.smstextnews.com/2007/04/07624_is_billed_by_three_and_t-mobile_as_an_international_text.html Quote: 07624* is billed by Three and T-Mobile as an international text? [...] The 07624 UK number range is operated by Manx Telecom — the Isle of Man telecoms company. [...] Even the BBC News 24’s operates 07624 800 100. Judging by the comments, it seems that Ofcon can't do anything about it because the Isle of Man isn't part of the UK... despite them having the geographic area code 01624, and the mobile area code 07624.

I wrote to the Director, Communications Commission, Isle of Man Government who replied:
"Your UK operator, not Manx Telecom, sets the charges for SMS messaging to the Isle of Man.  You should therefore complain directly to your service provider and to Ofcom, the UK regulator www.ofcom.org.uk

IOM operators have already made this same complaint to the UK, and your support would be welcome.  The Communications Commission of the Isle of Man Government is meeting Ofcom in September when this unresolved problem is amongst topics on the agenda.  A complaint directly from you to Ofcom would add weight to our position"

Does anyone have a relevant Ofcom e-mail address? - their website doesn't list anything specific

You could email the CEO of Ofcom Ed Richards  ---- ed.richards@ofcom.org.uk