While we are on the subject of mobile phones. Mobile phones in the US cost the same to dial as a normal landline.

Increasingly, that is no longer true - and when it is, it is often only for inter-network calls. Intra-network calls (ie from a subscriber on the same network) are generally 'incoming toll free'.

I pay $60.00 (approx 30 pounds) for unlimited calls (in or out), anywhere in the US, at any time and for any length of time. Call forwarding, call messaging, caller ID etc all included.......

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Regarding your other comments in the thread which you then very annoyingly closed down and directed here (is that just to show that a moderator has special powers) I would reply as follows:-

What the industry has to gain out of no change in the current setup is lots of filthy lucre.  What they have to lose is lots of filthy lucre.  It isn't just the call centres on these 0845 and 0870 numbers who make lots of extra money from 084/7 NGNs  - so do BT, Cable & Wireless and all the other big telcos.  Because the termination rate is higher than for geographic calls, even after they have handed most of the dosh to the service provider running the call centre.  Do you think BT earn anything at all out of non geographic calls originating on their network but carried by another call carrier and then terminated by BT again?  Do you think Mr Darren Thomas of Blue Telecom could afford to carry the calls for us at only 1p a time if there was any decent money at all left for BT in terminating geographic calls carried by their rivals?

BT commercial doesn't want to give up 084/7 NGN revenue sharing any more than the rest of them but BT's big corporate social and responsible side can see the 0845/0870 scam has now gone too far now so has to be stopped.

Ofcom's position is dictated by all this "light touch" nonsense from the government that they claim to believe in for commercial regulation.  Its a shame the government don't seem to believe in this "light touch" when it comes to the incarceration of people in their own homes under house arrest on the merest suspicion of terrorist connections or for that matter even in terms of current increasingly draconian prison sentencing policy.  I think you can see the inconsistency in the New Labour logic here?

I still think there is hope that Ofcom will ban 084/087 revenue sharing and make all the parties concerned move over to 09 and ICSTIS if they really have the nerve to carry on with it.  But I think Ofcom will be under a lot of pressure from the big boys running the call centres (eg the BBC and Capita) not to come up with this conclusion.

I have no problem with all current 09 service apart from ISP technical help lines.  With this one exception virtually all other 09 services do seem to be added value products that would not exist without revenue sharing being in place.  And so long as there are clear announcements about the price and so long as the customers are not captive (as they are not for adult chat lines and legal advice lines) then where exactly is the problem.

084/087 on the other hand converts calls offering no added value into premium rate calls without most consumers either being aware or the cost or having an option to take their business elsewhere.

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I thought it was the 0870/0990 thread we were previously talking about all this in so my mistake.

I did try to reply to your last message in the Watchdog thread though but the system said I didn't have the rights to?  So it looked like you had somehow stopped me from replying there?  But perhaps I did something wrong.

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No the matter is not over and they have not made their final judgement.  That process is going on now. Why on earth do you think that Cornish MP has put his Early Day Motion in the House of Commons just at this moment?

Ofcom wanted to do nothing originally other than saying more different priced 0845 and 0870 call rates would be a solution that would produce more competition.  But unexpectedly from their point of view (Ofcom normally get about 5 respondents to their endless consultations) they have got negative feedback on their proposals from 85%+ of the large number of respondents.  This includes both a lot of angry private individuals and BT and the Ofcom Consumer Panel who both say that the Ofcom proposed Option 2 won't help anyone.

So its most likely that 0870 revenue sharing will be abolished but not so sure what will happen to 0844 & 0845 (also legitimately being used by PAYG ISPs) or the deadly slumbering trojan of 0871.  BT recommends abolishing 0870 revenue share but letting it remain on 0871 with no ICSTIS type controls on 0871.  I am sure that those of you with just a little imagination can guess what 0870 merchants would do if 0871 was allowed to remain.

But old proverb say man from BT he often speak with forked tongue and cannot be trusted.  For instance is it not that same BT who just declared 6am to 8am in the morning (when many people are still asleep) to now be part of the weekday daytime peak rate phone call period.  Presumably next month they will extend the evening peak from 6pm until 10pm?  And Ofcom will just roll over and say it is ok.

In short it is not too late to influence the outcome but please express your views to the man at the top of Ofcom (Stephen Carter) and not to those stuffed dummies in the Ofcom Contact Centre.

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stephen.carter@ofcom.org.uk

This gets acknowledgements from his secretary.  Or you could also include

kip.meek@ofcom.org.uk
matt.peacock@ofcom.org.uk

Then your views might be registering directly with the people controlling what is actually going to happen at Ofcom and not with the low paid customer service ciphers who just give out irrelevant and outdated stock responses.

According to a phone call today from Geoff Brighton, Ofcom "need to understand more of the potential consumer reaction to a range of proposals." They are (have already?) putting this out to "focus groups" which will be managed by some "professional" external body.

Don't expect to hear anything before June (2005).

Because he was out when I phoned him.