About two weeks ago I faxed to my MP (Michael Mates) and asked him to arrange for Government Departments to release the "real" numbers to the public.  He has assured me that he has contacted the appropriate Minister with my request.  Hopefully the Government will issue "real" numbers soon.

There is a very good reason that 3U have disallowed 0845 calls which is that these numbers can be used for dialup internet so people could potentially connect for hours at a time although since their rate is only 2p against BT's 3p in the daytime, and as nearly everyone is now on either ADSL or 0808 subscription dialup, I can't see they are taking that much of a risk.

But I think that at present there are ways to route calls back into the uk from overseas for an 0870 that mean they get charged to the phone company the same as a geographic but that this is impossible for 0845 again due to their ISP usage.

However since Call18866 are such an innovative lot (1p for geographic calls no matter how long 24/7) and as they have been forced to suddenly charge more than BT for 0870 (i.e. we would really much rather not carry this call for you at all) I can't believe that 3U can sustain this for long or know what they are doing.

What I want to know though is why is there no article anywhere on line that exposes the whole 0870 NTS number termination regime and why there is no price competition in routing these calls??  I know that 0870's revenue share with the called company at up to 3p per minute but surely this gives another 4.5p per minute to play with compared to the 1p flat charged by 18866 for geographic calls?

I believe that 0870s are in fact also a massive revenue defender for BT who earn 3p a minute when one of these numbers are called compared to mere fractions of a penny for any other call.  The infuriating thing is that no one has ever been prepared to discuss why there is no competition in the price of calling the numbers and sadly 18866 do not have a phone number to call and ask this question to.

I believe that BT shot themselves in the foot big time when they made Option 1 compulsory as a minimum for their customers.  I also think Ofcom may have had a secret agenda in mysteriously agreeing to this change and I believe it is now just a matter of time until BT are forced to cut the cost of 0870 calls to 3p per minute and reduce the revenue shares to the called parties accordingly.  I still don't think you will then be able to better this new 3p rate through any third party phone providers and I bet 0870s will still be excluded from inclusive callling plans.

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OK that's interesting but why is this not listed at all by Google under a uk search for 0870 and ripoff?  Or do BT have a spy at Google too that allows them to scupper any attempts to criticise them?

Anyhow I have sent my extensive thoughts on this matter to the researcher guy at the BBC and will also separately be outlining to him why a local authority are told that they have no choice but to use an 0845 number for a telephone based credit card payments number.

I've also discovered today that Google have forgotten to zap some other possibilities, and the following still come up with the campaign site on the first page of a Google search for UK sites:

"0870, 0845 scam" :  1st

"scam of 0870, 0845"

"scam with 0870".

I suggest that everyone possible should protest to Google about the removal of the campaign sites from their listings for the apparent reason of advertiser's complaints against them !

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Interesting but what exactly is the 1664 access code for?  If this for a secondary service of 3U?

I had a call from a German lady at 3U this morning and she was actually in  Germany even though I had left my message on the uk operation's voicemail.  So Ithink this tells you how small their uk presence currently is.

She said 0870 numbers are definitely 2p a minute.

Two points to make here:-

1) has anybody had their first invoice from 3U confirming 0870 calls are only 2p per minute

2) Please nobody else ring 3U to ask if 0870 numbers are 2p a minute as otherwise they are bound to realise something is wrong, investigate and change their pricing policy.  As they are primarily a German company they probably haven't twigged the significance of 0870 as an access number yet or how large the call volumes are potentially likely to be.

I can confirm - as I have had the bill in recently - that 3U Telecom 12911 provide 0870 numbers at 0.017p per minute + VAT = 2p per minute. However, I find the sound quality terrible and connections take a while to get through as your call 'boomerangs' around the world. 3U have confirmed to be that there are problems accessing 0845 numbers via access code 12911 - however, they have arranged for an alternative access code 0f 1664 to be used for 0845 numbers at the agreed rate and the sound quality is good. I am also using the 1664 access code for 0870 numbers in order to get the better sound but I have no way of knowing the cost of such calls.

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They probably could (as could BT etc) but it all comes down to marketing strategy in the end, surely?

Regarding your last point, whilst there will always be those who 'cherry pick' the best tariff for each call (with or without the use of a dialler), surely 3U and others don't need to worry as most customers (the vast majority) simply want a package that gives them good value on their calls overall - they don't want to have to worry about the complexities of dialling different prefix codes for different numbers at different times of the day/week?