bloggs wrote on Nov 21^st, 2005 at 10:04pm:

Incredible.

The benefit of using the 0870 number is with my callers - they only have to call one number instead of many. The loss of the 0870 number will make it more difficult for my callers to reach me.

Hi bloggs.

If you are constantly moving, and because of this fact are happy to have your friends pay extra for the privilege of calling you, what is the objection if 0870 is moved to an 09?
Your friends would then know they were being charged a premium rate - and could decide if you're worth it

It doesn't need the whole 0870 covert premium scam to continue just for your particular case, surely (which, after all, must be a little bit unique!!)? 

Ask Ofcom to put 0870/0845 into 09.

bloggs wrote on Nov 21^st, 2005 at 10:04pm:

And so is the cost - I think that was the 'incredible' point - i.e. why do you not even consider the extra expense to which you are putting your friends?

bloggs wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2005 at 5:31pm:

Ah, that old chestnut! lol

0870 aren't premium rate! Well, that's that then, we've been against 0870 numbers, but they're not premium rate! I think we should disband this website and support 0870 numbers! 

bloggs wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2005 at 5:31pm:


The content of your post is so deliberately provocative and inflammatory that I can only assume you are  an undercover BT, Cable & Wireless or Ofcom person.

For the services you want there are a number of alternatives to which we won't object:-

1) Get an 0800 number.  Then you pay for the additional facility of having calls redirected wherever you want them to be instead of the caller who pays £4.50 an hour compared to a minimum 5.5p per hour for a BT Option 1 customer if you had an 01 or 02 number.

2) Get yourself a broadband connection and a Sipura SPA 3000 voip adapter then your friends can call you on your home geographic 01 or 02 number and if you aren't in it can then try redirecting the call using voip to another office or home landline you may be on (in which case the redirection will be free to you if you use say www.voipcheap.co.uk) and failing that it can redirect to your mobile at around 5p per minute on the cheapest voip provider for mobiles.  So you only pay if the call is forwarded to your mobile and the rate is cheaper than the rate your friends and family would pay to call your mobile which seems fair.

The application you are looking for is in any case a classic PNS one so to use 0870 is an abuse as indeed practically all current 0870 uses are.

You rely on the con of most of the public having been bamboozled and conned by BT and OfCoN into believeing 0870 is a national rate call even when it is not.  So you expect your callers to pay extra for calling you anywhere because you are two mean to pay for the facility you want yourself.  Also most people have a mobile phone for the application that you want and these days mobile phone calls cost little more than 0870 calls and you wouldn't have to pay anything for receiving the call wherever you are on a mobile if it is in the UK - which is sure to appeal to you.

I wonder if you are perhaps the gentleman with the Italian sounding surname who has made two submissions to Ofcom in strong support of 0870 numbers?  I can see no other possible purpose in your post other to deliberately goad people on this forum.

Dave wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2005 at 5:41pm:

No they shouldn't. It is not the cost of a number per se that makes it premium rate. It is the way in which the call charge is divided up and is available for the recipient to benefit from (either financially and/or through the provision of some service from their provider). A mobile number is more expensive, but that charge goes to the networks for connecting the two parties.

A premium rate number has a premium which is passed to the called party. Look up the word 'premium' in the dictionary.

In a free market, providers can set their own prices of numbers, but 0845 and 0870 don't really allow for this. They stiffle competitive forces that should be driving down prices, hence the problem. What's more, they are used as a direct substitute for geographical numbers, which they clearly are not.