They've got our number.       Times 12 July 06 page 18 Comment.
By Ross Clark

AT LAST: something at which Britain leads the world. According to Icstis, the quango that regulates — or theoretically regulates — premium-rate phone numbers, Britons spend more money calling premium lines than any other nation. Last year, we spent £1.6 billion in this way; twice as much as was spent in the US, a country with four times our population.

It would be easy to portray us as a nation of gullible fools, forever dialling up to throw someone out of the Big Brother house or to download a new ringtone for our mobile. But there is a lot more behind our heavy use of premium-rate lines. We are being forced to pay through the nose simply to ring our own Government or to dial our way through the labyrinth of bureaucracy that is our public services.

For every sad figure dialling up the Big Brother house I suspect there are many more running up a large phone bill trying to contact the Passport Agency or TV Licensing. Both organisations use 0870 numbers, which cost the caller up to eight pence a minute: four times what it typically costs to ring fixed, geographical numbers beginning with the prefix 01 or 02. Moreover, although few callers are aware of it, some of the money we spend calling 0870 numbers goes to the organisation we are calling. Make us sit in a queue listening to piped Greensleeves for ten minutes and running a government “helpline” can be a very nice little earner.

Not content with the licence fee, the BBC, which last week announced record pay rises for its directors, refers viewers with reception problems to an 0870 number. Most outrageously of all, the Metropolitan Police set up an 0870 emergency helpline after last year’s Tube bombings. Anyone who called from a public call box — as many had to — was charged up to 20 pence a minute.

No wonder our public services are so awful when the Government can actually earn money by provoking us into ringing up to complain.

Ofcom, the communications regulator, announced in April that it is to prohibit users of 0870 numbers making money from our calls. Yet the changes will not take effect until 2008 — leaving the Government another 18 months to rip us off. I would suggest that readers ring their MPs to demand an end to this stealth tax. But on second thoughts, maybe it would be a better idea if you wrote instead.

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NGM (or others) - One of your splendid (but SHORT) letters to the enditor may get published.

Did anything get published in The Times yet kk?

If it hasn't I can give it a go but keeping it short will be hard work on this issue as I know too much to be able to see the wood from the trees.  And getting a letter printed in The Times is a bit of a needle in a haystack job, whereas if I wite a letter to the Dorking Advertiser there is about 90% chance that it will get published in full.

Times Online July 19, 2006


BT poised to cut prices

By Rhys Blakely



BT is expected to announce sweeping changes to residential prices in coming weeks after the telecoms regulator today said it would ease regulations controlling retail pricing for line rental and call charges.



The telecoms giant has waged a long campaign against the controls, imposed in the run-up to its privatisation in 1984 to prevent BT abusing its then near monopolistic position.

Since then, the number of telecoms companies has exploded, with hundreds of low-cost competitors flooding the market. BT today welcomed Ofcom’s decision, with a spokesman calling the old regime "an anomaly, daft in today’s market".

BT currently charges households £11 a month for line rental. Yesterday, BSkyB gave an indication of how price pressures are building in the sector when it said it would launch a rival line rental package for £9 a month in the fourth quarter.

Sky is 38 per cent owned by News Corporation, the parent company of Times Online.

Plans are not finalised, but a BT executive told Times Online that the group intends to review the packages of services it offers customers. Not all prices will fall, but the aggregate effect is expected to be lower costs.

Karen Darby, chief executive of SimplySwitch.com, the price comparison website, said: "Giving BT the power to set its own price will ultimately benefit the customer."

BT is also likely to ultimately cut call charges to compete with cheaper rivals after Ofcom said it would scrap the current four-year-old retail pricing regime at the end of this month.

The group is also under pressure from VoIP (voice over internet protocol) suppliers such as Skype, which is owned by internet giant eBay. Such services allow users who have internet access to make virtually free calls.

Nearly 11 million households and businesses no longer use BT as their phone provider, according to Ofcom. The group has also come under pressure from mobile services, which now account for up to 31 per cent of UK call minutes.

Mr Darby said: "With the rampant advance of new technologies, telecoms companies have to introduce more competitive tariffs just to maintain their market share."

As part of its deal with Ofcom, BT has also agreed to limit increases for its basic line rental product to avoid disadvantaging customers – such as internet users – for whom the line rental accounts for the overwhelming majority of their phone bill.

However, today’s regulatory concessions will not affect BT prices in the broadband market, which is being bombarded by competitors offering "free" high-speed internet access.

Ofcom will not review that market until 1.5 million BT exchanges have been unbundled – a process where rival groups install their own technology. More than 600,000 exchanges have been modified in this way so far, with around 25,000 a week being unbundled.

BT shares were trading marginally lower at midday, down 0.75p at 226p.  

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