scatman wrote on Mar 11^th, 2007 at 10:14am:

What information on costs are you after? 

Are you talking about statistics of the amount we all pay extra?

scatman wrote on Mar 11^th, 2007 at 8:14pm:

Here's what us users are charged - the BT Specialised Numbers Price List (March 2007).

christopher wrote on Mar 12^th, 2007 at 4:15am:

Welcome Christopher.

Unfortunately, Rahul Thakrar has transposed 'geographical' and 'non-geographical' in his petition wording - which makes it a nonsense really.

Thanks for that Dave, your price comparison has confirmed what I have found through my own, admittedly brief, look through the BT price list which is that it is almost impossible to explain in less than a thousand words how much people are losing out. I therefore abandon my plan to write '0870 for dummies' However, it has clarified for me that the real damage of these NGNs is that they are excluded from the ever increasing inclusive plans. It matters not one jot if my BT plan offers me daytime calls at 3p per minute if everybody I have to make long phone calls to is 08 something. Perhaps this is a more worthy focus for our protest (and perhaps I have just caught up with the rest of you!) I need to re-group

Hello everybody peeps! (that shows my age!) I have just sent this letter to ofcom, and will be sending similar including an encouragement to sign the petition to my MP, and as many newspapers as I can think of. I still think weight of numbers is our greatest weapon, so any one who wishes to use this text for thier own letters and e-mails etc is welcome to do so. I would urge all contributors to invest the relatively small amount of time and money in flooding all these people with such communications as it is only by mass protest that we stand a chance, I think. Good luck.
"Ofcom
Riverside House
2a Southwark Bridge Road
London
SE1 9HA
Dear Sirs

It has just come to my attention, the extent to which the commercial use of 0845, 0870 and 0871 is disadvantageous to the customer and the way in which the costs are hidden from us.

According to the March 07 BT specialised number price list, 0845 is charged at the ‘local’ rate of 3.95 pence per minute (daytime) and 0870 at the ‘national’ rate of 7.91 pence per minute (daytime) while 0871 numbers are charged at anything between 5 and 10 pence per minute. This in itself is not unfair (apart from the suspicion raised by the contorted way in which these prices are listed)

Nor is it unfair that the telecoms industry is constantly trying to encourage us to use inclusive packages. This is to their advantage because it fixes the income from a customer regardless of the actual calls they make and therefore makes their accounting more efficient and economic.

What makes the process unfair is the fact that 08 combinations are excluded from inclusive schemes. So for instance, a weekday call to my bank’s helpline on a geographic national number would cost 3 pence per minute on my BT option one, on a 0870 number the cost would be 7.91 pence per minute. On a 0871 number, it would probably (67% of the 0871 numbers listed in the above BT price list) be 8, 9 or 10 pence per minute. This differential becomes astonishing when you compare a geographic weekend rate of 1.5 pence per minute to the ‘anytime’ rate carried by 0871. This is, of course, compounded by the inevitable queuing system that guarantees a minimum call time even if you get through straight away.

Furthermore, for the line holders to be benefiting from the cost of the call to a number that they are compelling you to use by not issuing geographic numbers may quite fairly be compared to building a shop so far off a bus route that you have to drive, and then charging you for parking. That is, giving you no option but to spend additional money over and above the cost of the goods or service in order to continue using it. 

It is quite unsupportable that this practice be allowed to continue as no benefit to the consumer exists and a significant, quantifiable detriment to the customer can be demonstrated. Since you exist to ensure that consumer interests are served, I would urge you to take immediate action in order to either make it illegal for commercial enterprise to use these numbers without offering a geographical alternative, or for telecoms providers not to include them in inclusive packages."

MSE Martin has mentioned the petition again in his weekly email this week - see here.

At time of writing this post, the petition has 35,584 signatures.  The 5th highest petition (The Hunting Act) has 36,227 which means we need another 644 to become 5th place.

Remember the deadline is 4th April.

Dave,
I have always thought that email is probably the best way to get the numbers up ( as demonstrated by the anti Road Pricing lobby who got to 1.8 million votes by using email).    So, yes, please get one out.  The problem now though is that little time is left for our Petition.   I did ask some time ago if it would be possible to ask the Petition sponsor to extend the deadline towards the end of this year, but had no response.

Incidentally, the current largest Petition, to scrap  Inheritance Tax, has over 120,000 votes and look what happened in the Budget!  Increase to £350,000 from £285,000 over the next 2 years.  Was Gordon influenced by the Petition?

It looks like the petition creeping nearer to the top has prompted some press action - see THIS .