Amusing to read the following from Centrica :

"We fundamentally believe that the setting of retail call prices by originating networks must be left to competitive market forces, rather than constrained within a regulatory ‘straight-jacket’ that requires costly technical solutions to advise consumers of slight increases in call prices...

"Under Ofcom’s proposals for 0870 pricing, it is highly unlikely that any originating network will decide to charge above its national geographic call rate by any significant amount. To do so would place it in a negative retail position vis-à-vis its competitors, which would become transparent to consumers under the information provision requirements proposed."

(My italics.)

Translation: We don't think there should be a call charge announcement because consumers would notice that they are being charged vastly more in percentage terms for 0870 calls.

An excellent and well reasoned response from the CMA at
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/nts_forward/responses/af/cma.pdf

idb wrote on Dec 9^th, 2005 at 12:10am:


I think I know someone in this forum who will be please to hear those comments.

Quote:
Do you know whether those 1500 made any difference to Ofcom's proposals?

No I still disagree with you andy9 (as if that could ever be a surprise ).

Personally i think all the numbskulls who have just said Yes, Yes and Yes in their responses can be completely ignored as they haven't bothered to read the consultation document or do any work.  Also Ofcom's own questions were utterly meaningless due to not asking things like "should we move all revenue share numbers to 09", "should we move non geographic numbers charged at geographic rates to their own unique prefix - eg 03", "should 08 only in future be used for Freephone numbers".

I would only count the views of anyone who had bothered to pen at least a few sentences saying what they actually think about the matter, although I would of course not make it obligatory for everyone to come up with 15 pages as I and idb have done.

Ofcom's questions were so rigged and so few in numbers (for the public in the Plain English Version) that answering those alone achieved nothing at all.  In fact I didn't answer the Ofcom NTS Way Forward questions to protest at the questions asked and especially the fact that completely different questions (with an odd question number sequence) were asked in the Plain English Version.

qtel wrote on Dec 9^th, 2005 at 6:45pm:


You are joking right?   Or more likely you work for this bunch of 0870 scamsters and having penned together this usual pathetic attempt to justify the unjusifiable you just couldn't resist wanting to bang the drum over these lies and mistruths.

1. If you wanted call redirection without paying for it but did not want revenue share you would have got an 0845 number which is at least the cheapest number you can get for callers without having to pay for the call redirection facilities yourselves.

2.  If you want call redirection facilities this is a service to your business and not your caller.  Your caller does not control where you direct the calls so he should not have to pay for it.  You should pay for it.

3.  Gives your company a national presence etc.  What utter garbage.  All of us here associate 0870 with ripoff commercial thugs who think about their profits first and customers last.  Most small companies who need to hide where they are really based through 0870 have something to hide about their business

4.  Your phone number will change again when Voip calling replaces PSTN.  Then you will have a name of some kind to contact you by voice and not a number.

5. Why do you make a post of this kind here.  I understand why you responded to Ofcom hoping you could go on getting service you should be paying for paid for by your customers who had been conned into believing it was BT National Rate when it isn't.  But to post here and draw attention to it.  Now that really does take stupidity.

I assume if someone told you that 2+2 was 7 that you would also believe that too without bothering to check the facts?

andy9 wrote on Dec 9^th, 2005 at 7:50pm:


All the responses with that form that just say Yes, Yes, Yes are not at all helpful to our cause.  They just give Ofcom ammunition to go ahead with its current proposals to let all the current scams continue on either 0871 or 0844.  They will be used by Ofcom to say they have plenty of support for their proposals as they are, even though many of those questionnaires seem to have been sent in by people who visit this site for phone numbers who had neither the time or the intellectual capacity to comment on the matter in more detail.  Of course the delibately obscure and verbose nature of Ofcom's consultations did not assist this.

As for the comments in the second half of the above sentence all I can say is well talk about the "pot calling the kettle".  If anyone thinks he is an elite and spends his time belittling others it is you andy9.  Or should I say DaveM?

I spoke too soon.  Dave, DaveM and Forum Admin are now all logged in simultaneously.