Quote:Perhaps this is a 'victory?' Call price announcements will certinaly help make people aware of the true costs of NGN calls...
Just wish now that something could be done about 0845!
No victory here I am afraid. Instead Ofcom and its predecessor OFTEL have managed to give us the runaround by constantly avoiding ending this scamming which began (in terms of these NGN numbers costing those of use the cheapest telcos more to call than ordinary geographic uk numbers) in about 1997.
Ofcom are playing various games with words to suggest they are ending 0870 exploitation but they are not as it can continue as long as the perpetrators add a call price announcement of the amount they are charging per minute. So in fact many 0870 calls will cost as much as now whilst some may be priced as geographic calls and be included in your inclusive calling allowances.
Also Ofcom first launched a consultation at the end of 2003 but because they failed to tell anyone about it no one responded so they said no one cared and it didn't matter. Then when everyone said that was cheating on Ofcom's part they grudgingly published a new consultation in Oct 2004 and when interviewed on BBC Radio 4 their Communications Director Matt Peacock said Ofcom would have a whole new regulatory setup in place for 084/7 by Spring 2005.
Then Ofcom in fact takes until end Sept 2005 to propose changes on 0870 that will be a joke and also proposes to leave 0845 as premium rate for the foreseeable future so as not to upset any of the big and powerful ISPs like AOL where, by what is obviously a pure and unrelated coincidence, Communications Director, Mr Matt Peacock previously worked.
Yet it would in fact have been perfectly possible to abolish all revenue share on voice 0845 and 0870 numbers immediately but to allow legitimate legacy 0845 ISPs to go on charging revenue share at the old NGN 0845 rates.
And the new Ofcom consultation will probably take another 9 months after it closes in December after which Ofcom may or there agin may not impose some new regulations.
At this rate expect no change until 2009 by which time 70% of uk call traffic will be via voice over ip.
Ofcom have shown their total contempt for uk telecoms consumers in this latest mickey mouse 250 page so called consultation document.