Even better why not have it on the search screen AND the results screen (if you found this site useful why not take a moment to sign the e-petition?)

I am concerned that this petition does not go far enough as it does not demand that Ofcom take immediate action to stop the misdescription of 0845 and 0870 numbers as local and national rate and to make such a claim punishable with a fine.  It also does not draw attention to the grotesque failure of Ofcom to fulfil its principal duty to protect the UK citizen consumer under Part 3(i) of the Communications Act 2003 and under the terms of the EU Misleading Advertising Directive.

Also it makes the call cost comparison against the Finarea 5p per call instead of most consumers paying as little as £1 per month for unlimited 01/02 calls at no further charge.

I think the petition should be calling much more for Ofcom to force compulsory call price announcements for such calls, to ban the terms lo-call and National Rate and to demand that call queuing over 1 minute is banned on all 084/7 numbers.  If calls extend beyond that time the call centre must provide an automated facility to call back the person who called.

Also disappointment at Ofcom's failure to make 0845 calls once called Lo-Call into normal calls priced at the 01/02 rate after 31st January 2008 needs to be expressed.

I may consider starting my own petition and deploying a very effective marketing technique to get a very large number of signatures.

wacs wrote on Jan 29^th, 2007 at 11:01pm:


At the heart of the present 084/7 scam is the disgraceful and deceitful telecoms regulator Ofcom which has been given the powers of the Office of Fair Trading and the Comptetition Commission over broadcasting issues but failed to use them sensibly or responsibly.  This is because the regulator has been hijacked by various telco cronies like Stephen Carter (ex NTL and former CEO) who until recently worked there who have simply ignored the regulator's public interest duties on telecoms matters.  The most glaring and shameful examples of this are in terms of Patientline at 50p per minute to call patients in NHS hospitals and the NEG 0845 doctors surgery scheme scam.

It is the regulator who is responsible for the outrage of these numbers still being wrongly known as local/national rate and for the outage of them not being forced on to an 09 premium rate code where they belong so they should carry the can.

Keith wrote on Jan 29^th, 2007 at 9:43pm:


And here's the link (as viewed by size)... http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/list/open?sort=signers

gdh82 wrote on Jan 30^th, 2007 at 5:44pm:


Yes, it's here  http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/list/open?sort=signers ;     This petition is currently on the 3rd page. 

Sad person that I am I have been monitoring the progress during the day (Boy am I bored with work!)

It has been averaging a very, very steady 30 signature an hour since 11 pm this morning. At 6pm it was on 429 and 129th in the list. Going up the list now is going to be much harder as the petitions above have many more signatures so the gaps get bigger between petitions.

I assume the numbers signing will drop away as we become reliant on the less regular visitors to this site to sign up.