anigel wrote on Nov 29
th, 2006 at 1:10pm:
Yes we can all see that in SOME situations 08 numbers are just an attempt to grab money but take for instance a free internet provider who only earn revenue from the revenue share of you calling an 08 number. That is thier sole revenue. The service you buy from them is only paid for by the cost of the calls to the 08 number that is how you buy the service from them. you make no payments directly to them.
No one here has ever objected to the use of revenue sharing 0845 numbers to fund dialup ISPs, our objection is the the use of these numbers for principally voice based services to customer contact centres and shops and businesses that were previously on geographic numbers. It is due to the complete shambolic incompetence of Ofcom and its predecessor OFTEL that pay as you go internet access numbers shared the same code and tariff as voice based services to call centres run by charities, government and some businesses and still scandalously missold as Lo-Call or Local, even they have not been any such thing for several years for anyone on all 01/02 calls package.
We do not even demand an end to revenue share calls to private sector call centres, although we do demand it for doctors and all government contact centres supplying monopoly government services.
What we argue is that the EU Misleading Advertising Directive should be enforced and that numbers which are covert premium rate numbers involving revenue share should not be purposely misdescribed by all the worst perpetrators like Sky and the Royal Bank of Scotland as Lo-Call/Local and National rate. If the services could only be delivered on 09 prefixed numbers with an announcement that your call cost includes a surcharge to pay for the cost of operating the service then we would be relatively happy.
These 084/7 numbers have only flourished due to the massive lie that the telecoms industry perpetrated of claiming they were local and national rate to call centres and consumers while in fact earning an ever growing hidden revenue share. Ofcom now propose to repeat that lie by scandalously allowing 0871 numbers to be called Business Rate, thereby presumably implying that it is usual for all businesses to have one and demand revenue share to call them. That is nothing short of a scandal when Ofcom should be there to encourage competition and lower calling prices for ordinary phone calls to companies.
Has anyone on here ever said that there should not be 09 quiz numbers? No we just would argue that the callers should know the poor odds of getting through and that the chances of their 75p flate rate call being connected are utterly negligible. Also we would demand that all higher cost premium rate services should have default activated PIN number access so other users of a telephone line cannot just steal from the bill payer who effectively provides a blank cheque to fund all such NGN services (be they 118, 084/7 or 09).
So you are wrong to claim that we oppose all 084/7 numbers but we deplore their abuse and the cynical excuse given by Ofcom to maintain the abuse on the once lower cost 0845 numbers on the basis that it would supposedly be too difficult in Feb 2008 for the by then fast evaporating dialup ISP industry to move customers who still need those service to a specific code solely for dialup ISPs where revenue share would still be allowed.
It is the failure of the regulator to stop misdescription of these calls which in turn explains doctors for instance adopting them (which they would never do if they had to state the numbers were premium rate and the amount of the revenue share going to the service provider or their client) to which we object and want stopped.
I hope that clarifies the situation for you.