Quote:I dont know the full circumstances in this case but normally where an 090/ 0870/0871/0844 access number is involved in a conference call ,no host fees or low host fees are involved .So the provider of the conference call is providing the service free/low cost to the people hosting it,and they make their money from NGN numbers provided for the participants to use.
The other way round is for the cost of the conference call to be centrally billed to the hosts. Each participant pays the cost of a geographical phone call,or is given freephone access into the conference and the hosts pick up the cost of the conference charge per person, per minute.
But as with all these scams it is reliant on a form of deliberate deception to the participants that 0870 "is only the BT national rate sir/madam" which the two faced liars at BT to this day perpetuate for 0845 and 0870 numbers on every phone bill they print for their customers (and which the even more incompetent bureaucrats at Ofcom still allow to take place).
If all 084 and 087 calls contained a clear announcement that the number called contained a payment to the party called for providing the service you are calling and stated the amount per minute and there was no pretence it was national rate or local rate then there would be less to object to. But even then ther would be other issues such as the security of a system involving such payments when phone lines are open for use and not PIN protected against such payment calls by callers other than the line subscriber and in the case of mere customer service desks the issue of whether it is right to charge customers for the mere provilege of calling to do business with the company.