Hi, I work for a very small national charity we have been using an 0845 number for a number of years, when we first started using the 0845 number most of our users seemed to benefit. Now that most people have a prepaid for minutes on their mobile or free minutes on their home phones is there any advantage to our customers / users in us having an 0845 number?

Thanks

No.

See Geographical (01/02) Vs 0845/0870 price comparison.

Some people do pay more to call geographical numbers than 0845 ones at certain times. These are on the most basic tariffs.

The point is that there is a free market in tariffs and these variation in prices don't apply to 0845 numbers (apart from provider to provider). Local and national calls cost the same anyway.

As Dave says, NO.

There are only disadvantages to the caller in the increased costs they incur, change to an 01/02, or on of the new 03 numbers and give your customers the advantage.

It is possible that you are subsidising the calls by paying to receive them!

There may be a benefit in operating both 0845 and a geographical number, though. If there is already an underlying number, you can simply publish that alongside the 0845 number and let people choose which to call.

Most people are on some kind of price plan for which 084x/087x aren't included and are charged for extra with some landline telephone companies charge upto 6p/min whilst most mobile operators charge upto 30p/min (last I noticed).

If you don't need any advanced features like call diversion, voice menus, etc then there is no advantage to yourselves as well as joe public.

If you do need advanced features then why not publish both a 0845 and the geographical number.

Unfortunately using an 03x, although charged for the same as 01/02 for joe public, can mean you incur incoming call charges.  As a charity I'm of the opinion that this route should be avoided.

If you publish both your 0845 and geographical (01/02 number) then maybe put a paragraph under it that reads something like, "For those with inclusive price plans, or calling from networks non-BT networks please ring our geographical 01xxxx (or 02xxx) number."

Without wishing to complicate the situation by adding a further dose of advice, I would understand the situation to be as follows.

At one time there were advantages to some distant callers in having a 0845 (local rate) number. Now that there is no longer any distinction between local and national calls, these have disappeared.

"Non-geographic" numbers can offer ready access to certain technical features. When a 084, or 087x number is used the cost of these features can be subsidised by the "revenue share" obtained from callers. Because revenue sharing is prohibited with 03xx numbers, the cost of these has to be carried in full, making 03xx numbers more expensive.

If the callers in question are beneficiaries of a "charitable" service, it is unlikely that one would wish them to subsidise the cost of providing it. There are however some charities that operate in this way using 084x or 087x numbers, effectively levying a small charge on users of their services.

Perverse discounting by some telephone service providers means that some can call 0845 numbers at a slightly lesser rate than that which applies to geographic or 03xx numbers. We do not however have any assurance about how long this odd situation will remain in force. The additional cost of renting two numbers and providing different types of service, may not make this a sensible option.

If the benefits of the features available with a non-geographic number are required, it would probably have to be a 03xx number. If there is no reason not to have a geographic number, then this should be used.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2008 at 6:33pm:

The additional cost of renting two numbers and providing different types of service, may not make this a sensible option.

I agree however there are a few providers (last I looked) that never charged rental or for receiving calls on 0845.  There may have been a one-off setup fee though.

However, as I said earlier, ideally a geographical number should be used but if features are required then displaying both a 0845 and geo is a compromise.

bbb_uk wrote on Jul 22^nd, 2008 at 4:50pm:

Unfortunately using an 03x, although charged for the same as 01/02 for joe public, can mean you incur incoming call charges.  As a charity I'm of the opinion that this route should be avoided.

Not in every case, especially if you can accept calls via VOIP.  I've got an 03 number (which I mostly just use for testing things) which is delivered to an asterisk box, and then onto our normal phones.  £1.18 a month, and no cost to receive calls.

The only disadvantage is lack of public awareness, but with the BBC now using them this should hopefully change.

Indeed. With all these "excuses" about needing 08xx numbers to ensure business continuity if one of your telephone lines fails, with Asterisk you can just shift the software configuration onto another box and be up and running in minutes (as long as your Internet is working). I'm sure it is even possible to have redundant boxes at other centres that can just be powered up in a crisis and take over call handling there.

Quite... there is very little you can't do with a VOIP system.  ...and if everything else fails, the 03 supplier I use (A&A) will deliver the call to a landline (or any block of phones of any sort, in various orders) albeit at standard call rates.

I use my asterisk box in quite a complicated situation, with three VOIP suppliers and a landline going through it, multiple extensions around the house, and a nice IVR that takes messages or forwards incoming calls out to mobiles if nobody is in.  And total cost to me so far, about a tenner each on two adapters for the actual phones. (Even the PC was free, off Freecycle.)