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The Met website now only lists the 020 number for overseas callers and since most people don't understand the phone system and phone call costs the way we do they will still end up calling 0870 at up to £24 an hour from Pay as You Go Mobile Phone compared to about £3.75 from the same pay as you go mobile per hour to the 020 number.

It seems clear that whatever Ms Beaton and/or the rest of her Met colleagues have attempted to circulate to reveal the other 020 number to call has not been correctly worded and has only listed it for overseas calls.

It seems to me that the Met and/or Pito still live in fear and trembling of being sued by Cable & Wireless for loss of call revenue.

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Do you think Mr Colin Shepherd may even be a member of this forum under another name?

His letter seemed unusually perceptive for a mere member of the general public.

On the other I fear that I personally know far, far too much on this topic to ever have ever been able to write a letter as succinct and yet as on target as Mr Shepherd's missive (or should that be missile).

Sadly The Times have not been back in touch to say that they intend to publish my own rather longer letter on this issue.

Presumably if the Daily Telegraph have in fact received over 100 angry letters on this topic they may have been forced to decide that it was time to let just one rather brief one through the net?

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I thought David Derbyshire's article was very informative and accurate. It didn't cover every issue (e.g. calling from outside the UK), but it covered issues more relevant to readers of the Telegraph, i.e. those living in the UK, such as the issues of high cost and revenue.

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No, I don't know him at all.

You have to remember who the target audience is. Most people on this site are very interested in figures. The average reader of a newspaper, even a true broadsheet, does not want to wade through an article full of figures. I thought the article gave a true and convincing introduction to the 0870 scam, even though it was not solely about the 0870 scam.

Just seen midnight news on BBC News 24, and it seems that Mail on Sunday (oh dear... but you never know ... it MIGHT be accurate!) have a 2 page spread on the London 0870 scandal that was featured in the review of the Sunday newspapers.  Lets see what they say .. at least it guarantees more coverage.  Watch if it also features on the 9am news review program tomorrow on BBC1.  Perhaps we are finally going to see some headline coverage of this scandal.  Steve

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True.

But it is the first time an emergency 0870 number has been publicised on this kind of scale (almost every news bulletin and Met press conference for 2 days) post the condemnation of 0870 for this purpose by the COI and by Ofcom.  It is also post the ASA ruling that the non standard cost of these numbers must be promoted/revealed - something again totally ignored by the 0870 loving and serial abusing BBC.

Ailsa Beaton at the Met seemed a nice enough lady but to know that she is on the allegedly expert Pito and yet has never informed herself about 0870 costs points to incompetence and disinterest in the telecoms field in which she professes herself to be an expert.

The biggest rogues nonetheless are Ofcom who continue to live in the total fantasy world that more promotion of 0870 costs will cure the problem when the 0870 abusers continue a Stalinist like education of their dumb call centre workers that these number are either charged only as an "ordinary local" or "ordinary national".  Since the dumb saps who work in call centres never have any form of enquiring mind they always blindly repeat these lies.

The use of this number in such a way also goes against the advice given by the COI regarding the use 0f 0870 numbers on help lines.

Victims' relatives paid 50p/min to helpline

Source: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=402137&in_page_id=2

PHONE giant Cable & Wireless is charging desperate relatives up to 50p a minute to call the police missing persons hotline, we can reveal.

Tens of thousands of people dialling the 0870 number in an attempt to account for their loved ones are being charged up to 10p a minute from landlines and as much as 50p from mobiles.

The practice was last night condemned by telecoms watchdog Ofcom, which warned last year that public bodies should not use expensive phone lines for such purposes.

Ofcom claimed it immediately told the police and the Home Office that it was 'completely wrong' to be using the premium-rate number --but that its advice was ignored.

The 0870 1566344 number has been rung more than 200,000 times since Thursday's atrocity, earning the company a significant share of the tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of pounds generated. The police is not allowed to profit as it is a public body.

Cable & Wireless last night admitted that 'mistakes had been made', but blamed the Governmentfunded Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) for leaving it with no alternative but to charge for the calls.

A spokesman said: 'PITO was offered an 0800 number which would have been free for callers, and an 0845 number, which would have been less expensive, but PITO would then have had to cover our costs for running the line and they said they had no money for it.'

No one from PITO was available to comment. However, if it is correct that it did not have the funds to ensure a free hotline, the question arises as to why the Home Office did not come up with the money.

An Ofcom spokesman said: 'It is entirely inappropriate that an 0870 number was used for this purpose. Once the hotline was up and running we immediately expressed our deep concerns about the consequences.

'From a landline alone, phone calls are costing 10p each minute, while from a payphone or mobile the price is four or five times that.

'Many of those attempting to dial the hotline from abroad will be devastated to discover the number does not work from their country, often because their national networks do not have an inter-connection arrangement.

'And people with low incomes may be struggling to afford the service.' Cable & Wireless's strong financial performance has only served to increase criticism. The company made profits of £377m in the year up to March and had a turnover of £3.2bn.

Its chairman Richard Lapthorne earned £396,000 over that time, while Italian chief executive Francesco Caio drew a salary of £1.9m.

The Ofcom spokesman added: 'It's disappointing that despite us publishing guidelines only eight months ago advising public sectors against using these numbers, this has occurred at such a tragic time.'

The watchdog is powerless to act, however, as the practice is not illegal. The computerised switchboard system which handles the 0870 calls is known as Casweb and automatically reroutes callers to other parts of the country when the Metropolitan Police lines become overloaded.

This has infuriated friends and relatives of those missing since the outrages. Gous Ali, who has been touring London's hospitals trying to contact his girlfriend, Neetu Jain, said: 'I have lost count of the number of times I have called this number.

'Each time it is the same - people answering the phone in some other part of the country who do not know anything of the geography of London. The last time I called, it was someone in the West Midlands.

'No one ever calls us back. It is hopeless. And to think that they are charging so much money for it makes it even worse.'

Last night Mr Lapthorne offered to make a donation to charity from the hotline revenues - but would not be drawn on how much this would be.

Speaking from his country home in Buckinghamshire, he said the charges of up to 50p per minute for calling 0870 numbers from mobile phones were dictated by mobile phone service providers.

Cable & Wireless levies the charge, however. He added: 'We are now in talks with Ofcom and service providers to work on a solution to this type of emergency.'