Dear Customer

From 1 August 2009, a major change will be happening to 087 numbers: 087 numbers - with the exception of 0870 - will officially be reclassified as Controlled Premium Rate Services (PRS). This means that PhonepayPlus will take over day-to-day regulation of 0871/2/3 numbers as opposed to Ofcom.

What this means to you

If you hold a 0871/2/3 number then you must ensure that callers are aware of the charge to dial this number. The price must be displayed on all literature that contains your number. It must be clear and displayed close to the number and not hidden.

What are the charges

The charges from a BT landline are 10p per minute plus a setup fee of 8p.

An example of wording you may use on your literature is:

Calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras.

Please visit http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/upload/pricing.pdf for further guidance on how to display pricing.

The above changes need to be in place by 31st July 2009. If you do not have enough time to make these changes before that date, you can advise the caller of the charges at the beginning of every call. Please refer to the Phonepayplus website for further guidance - http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/output/087-Number-Range.aspx - I suggest you look at this link!

Cheers.

Have read the link and the analysis of data for 0871 number range.  The estimated income from 0871 in 2009 is GBP85 million.  So Geoff Brightons statement to me that companies did not use non-geographic numbers to generate income seems a little off the mark!

The pricing information suggestion from PhonePayPlus is wholly unacceptable, as pricing of calls to 0871, and other premium rate numbers is unregulated, apart from BT. There is no way that a user of one of these numbers can know what costs their callers are incurring.

The only way that such a service could operate would if only those prepared to apply agreed call charges (as declared) were allowed to connect calls to such numbers.

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The point about income is somewhat complex, but not insignificant.

Many users of premium rate numbers set up the services on these numbers as means of making money from the service provided, e.g. chat lines.

Others use revenue sharing or 087x numbers, rather than geographic numbers, so as to offset the costs that they incur in providing a service that they would be providing anyway.

From the caller's perspective there is no meaningful difference, they are paying for a service from the person they are calling as well as from their telephone provider.

The difference is seen in the fact that in the first case there would no service at all if it were not for the income from calls.

Use of PhonePayPlus as a self-regulator highlights this difference. It only represents those who are in business primarily to make money out of premium rate telephone services.

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Only £35 million of the £85 million is estimated as being outpayments, the remaining £50 million is that retained by the telcos - at an average of nearly 7p per minute (vs 5p per minute in outpayment) for the estimated 731 million call minutes.