1 July 2015 is rapidly approaching. Many business telecoms providers have declared their Service Charges. Retail telecoms providers have yet to declare their Access Charges (there's a separate thread for that).

A number of myths are beginning to start up, mostly based on misunderstandings and misreadings of Ofcom's extensive documentation.

Feel free to add to this list if you discover others...

On 1 July 2015, calls to 080 numbers (but NOT to 0500 numbers) will become free from all mobile phones.

Several NGN supplier websites and various blogs have mentioned that calls to 0500 numbers will become free from mobiles on 1 July 2015. This is of course incorrect.

It is possible that some mobile providers will make 0500 numbers free to call, some already have, but this is by no means guaranteed to happen.

Several NGN supplier websites and various blogs have mentioned that the new call charging system for 084, 087 and 09 numbers requires an announcement of the Service Charge at the start of the call.
 
There is no such requirement. I am guessing this misunderstanding is simply a misinterpretation of the words "declare the service charge" in Ofcom's "final statement" on implementing the unbundled tariff.

At least one telecoms provider asserts that various 084 and 087 number ranges with a zero Service Charge (e.g. 0843 418, 0844 214, 0845 215, 0870 144, etc) are "freecall" ranges, the same as 0800, 0808, 111, 112 and 116.
 
This is incorrect. These 084 and 087 calls are not "free". The caller still has to pay the Access Charge.

Even after declaring that calls to their 0845 number (or in some cases 0843 or 0844 number) incur a Service Charge, there are many sites that still claim that the call is "local rate".

There hasn't been a distinct "local rate" charge since 2004. From 1 July 2015, calls to 084 and 087 numbers will have a declared Access Charge and a declared Service Charge.

A number of websites claim their 0870 number is a "national rate" call. This is already a dubious claim.

Once the Access Charge plus Service Charge system is in place, no such claim can be made.

From 1 July 2015, all service providers using 084, 087 and 09 numbers must declare their Service Charge wherever their number is shown. This applies to advertising, websites, brochures, press releases, etc. There are no exceptions.

From the same date, all retail landline and mobile providers must charge calls to these numbers using the Access Charge plus Service Charge system.

Telecoms suppliers who provide landlines and mobiles to business users do NOT have to charge calls to 084, 087 and 09 numbers using the "unbundled tariff" system.

At least one telecoms supplier is telling their business customers that if they only supply to other businesses that there is no requirement for them to declare the Service Charge. This is not true. All users of 084, 087 and 09 numbers must declare the Service Charge for their numbers.

Good points.

With reference to the point about numbers with zero Service Charge, what is the point in this being allowed? Why not use a 03 number instead?  :-?

Dave wrote on Apr 23^rd, 2015 at 7:39pm:

With reference to the point about numbers with zero Service Charge, what is the point in this being allowed? Why not use a 03 number instead?  :-?

Good question. There seems no sensible reason for having a zero Service Charge. Maybe one of the small number of providers that have these would care to explain their reasoning?

EE have told their customers that the changes affect "numbers starting 09, 118, 0843, 08434, 08435, 0871, 0872".

The correct list is 0843, 0844, 0845, 0870, 0871, 0872, 0873, 090, 091, 098 and 118.

Various providers are saying these numbers are "typically used for banks, utility companies, customer helplines, government departments", but in reality this is no longer the case.

Various changes in regulation and guidance over the last 18 months or so means that those services mainly use 03 numbers these days. A small number may use 01, 02 or 080 numbers.

Virgin Media are telling their customers that these numbers "will be known as Non Geographic Numbers (not service numbers) to align with the rest of the industry".

As these numbers impose a Service Charge on callers, Ofcom rightly refers to these as Service Numbers all the way through the UK Calling publicity material.

Suppliers of non-geographic numbers are now communicating the respective Service Charges that their customers, the users of these numbers, will have to display on their websites and everywhere else that their numbers are advertised.

The Service Charge rates must be stated including VAT. Unfortunately, several of the suppliers of these numbers are communicating the ex-VAT rates leading to a number of websites declaring that their Service Charge will be, e.g., 5.8p per minute.

EE are emailing their customers who are on inclusive call plans. The message includes this detail:

Quote:

You'll be billed extra for any 118 call you make, as these calls are charged by 118 themselves and not us.

This fails to recognise that EE will impose an Access Charge alongside the Service Charge imposed by the DQ service.

FROM OFCOM ukcalling.info
From 1 July 2015, the cost of calling service numbers will be made up of two parts:
[list bull-blackball]

An access charge: This part of the call charge goes to your phone company, charged as pence per minute. They will tell you how much the access charge will be for calls to service numbers. It will be made clear on bills and when you take out a contract.
   

A service charge: This is the rest of the call charge. The organisation you are calling decides this, and will tell you how much it is.

[list bull-redball]

What is a 'service number' ?
Domestic, non-domestic, a doctor, HMRC, the Jobcentre, a bank, Ofcom ??

Why is the 'access charge' priced per minute? If I pay my phone company to access a service, I dont expect to pay to my phone company again for 'access', for every minute I use the 'service'.
eg if its £5 to the film makers and £5 to access the cinema (of my £10 cinema film ticket) to cover cinema wages and running costs, I dont expect to pay more to the cinema if my film is 110 minutes long vs a 90 minute length?


~ Thread merged by Dave as requested

barclay55 wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2015 at 6:46pm:

[list bull-redball] What is a 'service number' ? Domestic, non-domestic, a doctor, HMRC, the Jobcentre, a bank, Ofcom ??

A number starting 08, 09 or 118, as it says.

barclay55 wrote on Jun 2^nd, 2015 at 6:46pm:

FROM OFCOM ukcalling.info From 1 July 2015, the cost of calling service numbers will be made up of two parts: [list bull-blackball] An access charge: This part of the call charge goes to your phone company, charged as pence per minute. They will tell you how much the access charge will be for calls to service numbers. It will be made clear on bills and when you take out a contract.     A service charge: This is the rest of the call charge. The organisation you are calling decides this, and will tell you how much it is. [list bull-redball] What is a 'service number' ? Domestic, non-domestic, a doctor, HMRC, the Jobcentre, a bank, Ofcom ?? Why is the 'access charge' priced per minute? If I pay my phone company to access a service, I dont expect to pay to my phone company again for 'access', for every minute I use the 'service'. e.g. if its £5 to the film makers and £5 to access the cinema (of my £10 cinema film ticket) to cover cinema wages and running costs, I dont expect to pay more to the cinema if my film is 110 minutes long vs a 90 minute length?

A service number is a number starting 084, 087, 09 or 118. It's a number with a Service Charge.

Doctors, HMRC, DWP, banks now use 03 numbers. These numbers do not have a service charge.

The Access Charge is the rate you pay your telephone provider to connect and convey the call. This is always a per-minute rate.

The Service Charge is the money that is passed on to a third party to pay them for the service they provided, such as sports results or  horoscope, a chatline, etc. This might be a per-minute rate or, in the case of e.g. voting on a TV show or entering a competition, a single per-call charge. In some cases, e.g. directory enquiries, it may be a combination of both.

I think the biggest myth is that 1 July 2015 is the Happy End. I hope it will in fact turn out to be the Beginning of the End of inefficient costly micropayments through your phone bill.
1 July has already had the Happy End of moving government departments, most banks, and (for example) ATOC's National Rail Enquiries to honest 03 numbers. (So, in effect, all rail users now pay for the minority who have to, or choose to, ask for a train time by phoning 03457 48 49 50.)
I'm wondering what Traveline (for example) will do. They currently say

Quote:

Calls from BT landlines cost 10p per minute plus network extras. Calls from mobiles are likely to cost more. Please note that our call-centre agents only have access to the same information as on this web site.

From 1 July they could (but won't dare) say

Quote:

Calls cost you our telephone company's service charge of 12p a minute, plus your telephone company's access charge of up-to-44p a minute. Of this ridiculous up-to-56p, we get 3p (or whatever). Please get a smart phone and use our website or app instead.

Similarly, the BBC could say

Quote:

To vote for Agatha, call 09bcd... Your call will cost our telco's £1.50 per call, plus your telco's access charge of up to 44p per minute. Of this bizarre £1.94, we get 50p (or whatever). If you often watch this rubbish, please sign up to vote on line and pay by debit card. You pay 52p, and our bank's cut is only 2p.

Within their description of the new call charge system, several landline and mobile providers are telling their customers to look on the ukcalling.info website for their Access Charge, seemingly unaware that they themselves have to decide this charge and publish it on their own website.

Where a business or organisation uses an 084, 087 or 09 number they will have to declare their Service Charge wherever their number is advertised. The following format is recommended:
"Calls cost Xp per minute plus your phone company's access charge."

Several media outlets have failed to understand the new system and are mistakenly saying that this is the wording that callers will see on their telephone bill.

A number of service providers have recently amended their price declaration from (something similar to this):
"Calls cost 5p per minute from a BT landline. Other providers and mobile operators may charge more."
to this:
"Calls cost 5p per minute plus your phone provider's access charge."
retaining the same numerical value and without bothering to look up the actual Service Charge that applies from 1 July 2015 and are therefore stating an incorrect value for this.

Several landline and mobile providers are using convoluted wording that may confuse the reader.

"If you call 08,09 or 118 numbers, look out for changes as to how these will be charged from July 1st
We'll charge 25p a minute as an access charge to connect you."

Seems to say that 080 numbers will also be charged this way. They aren't.

"Landline Access charge from 1st July - Numbers starting with 08 ~ /09/118 - 5p per minute
~08 numbers - Excludes 0800 and 0808 numbers (free phone). All calls will be charged an access charge + Service charge - for full list of current charge bands, please click HERE."

Why not just say that the Access Charge is for 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers and that 080 numbers are free?

"Calls to service numbers beginning 08, 09 or 118 (excluding 0800/0808) are subject to an access charge of 9p per minute; this replaces our standard call set-up fee of 15.8p for these calls."

As before, but this time it seems to say that calls to 0800 and 0808 have a 15.8p setup fee. They don't.

Several articles about the changes state that the maximum Service Charge for calls to 09 numbers is £3 per minute or £5 per call.

The correct limits are £3.60 per minute and £6 per call as they must be stated including VAT.

A clear rip off example is Three (and I am sure a number of other Mobile networks)

Calls to Traveline's expensive number are 12p per minute (their number providers charge) plus 25p per minute (Three's charge) that's nearly 40p a minute!

I haven't double checked, but I think 3's access charge is the lowest of the major mobile networks.

Three - 25p per minute
EE - 44p per minute
Vodafone - 23p per minute - 45p per minute from August 2015
O2 - 25p per minute - 45p per minute from 15 August 2015.

The Access Charges are somewhat irrelevant.

The real rip off is the use of a number that imposes a Service Charge on callers.

So I was kind of right, assuming 3 doesn't hike its prices in August. (Why are they doing this?)

Ian01 wrote on Jul 1^st, 2015 at 12:39pm:

Three - 25p per minute EE - 44p per minute Vodafone - 23p per minute - 45p per minute from August 2015 O2 - 25p per minute - 45p per minute from 15 August 2015. The Access Charges are somewhat irrelevant. The real rip off is the use of a number that imposes a Service Charge on callers.

If they had never been set up then companies could never use them.... sadly a number of companies just see profits above all else...

Ian01 wrote on Jul 1^st, 2015 at 12:39pm:

The real rip off is the use of a number that imposes a Service Charge on callers.

Why do you think that, Ian? Traveline (for example) has a reasonable case for its 12p service charge (of which they get, presumably, only a part, the rest going to their Telco).
EE has no case at all for its 44p access charge. Asda's, on the same network, is only 8p. Cost price is, presumably, about 5p. Why are the big operators grabbing such a huge markup? Do they want to kill off service numbers and concentrate on selling people smartphones and expensive bundles with lots of data?

Ian01 wrote on Jul 1^st, 2015 at 12:39pm:

Three - 25p per minute EE - 44p per minute Vodafone - 23p per minute - 45p per minute from August 2015 O2 - 25p per minute - 45p per minute from 15 August 2015.

And yet, GiffGaff (on the O2 network) has a 7p/minute Access Charge.

Sainsbury Mobile seem to have got into a horrendous mess in updating their website and have loads of incorrect information. Ofcom are now on their case.

Lebara has attempted to set five different Access Charges from 25p to £5 per minute depending on the number range called and the level of Service Charge that applies to that call. This is obviously not permitted and Ofcom are now on the case

nicholas43 wrote on Jul 1^st, 2015 at 5:25pm:

Ian01 wrote on Jul 1st, 2015 at 12:39pm: The real rip off is the use of a number that imposes a Service Charge on callers. Why do you think that, Ian? Traveline (for example) has a reasonable case for its 12p service charge (of which they get, presumably, only a part, the rest going to their Telco). EE has no case at all for its 44p access charge. Asda's, on the same network, is only 8p. Cost price is, presumably, about 5p. Why are the big operators grabbing such a huge markup? Do they want to kill off service numbers and concentrate on selling people smartphones and expensive bundles with lots of data?

Traveline announcement that they charge 12 p a minute service charge, but your own company add its own access charges but it will tell you this doesnt comply surely. :)

Lebara claim ( http://www.lebara.co.uk/medias/sys_master/hef/hd6/8918155100190.pdf ) that
"THE SERVICE CHARGE FOR THE NUMBER IS ANNOUNCED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE CALL BY THE COMPANY YOU ARE CALLING".

This is not correct.

Vodafone Home Phone have listed PPM Service Charges under a Service Charge heading, but has the PPC Service Charges under a "Connection Charge" heading.
http://www.vodafone.co.uk/broadband/VODAFONE_CONNECT_PRICE_PLAN_1_

This is misleading.

Vonage claim:
" 9.5ppm Access Charge, Service Charge 0p to 0845 and 0870 numbers "
http://www.vonage.co.uk/call-plans/plans/

They seem to have missed the point that the Service Charge is up 7p per minute for 084 numbers and up to 13p per minute for 087 numbers as well as that the Access Charge is for all 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers.

Choose.net insist that landline providers can still add a connection fee for calls to 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers.

This is, of course, incorrect. The call cost consists of the Access Charge and the Service Charge and nothing else.