Discussion on whether telcos complied with the new rules is here.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject:      Investigation In To Information on 084/7 Calling Costs - Call Type Description on Phone Bills
Date:      Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:35:11 +0100
To:      michael.love@xxxxxx.org.uk

Dear Mr Love,

Second own-initiative enforcement programme: compliance with General Condition 14.2 (“GC 14.2”) -
www.ofcom.org.uk/bulletins/comp_bull_index/comp_bull_ocases/open_all/cw_980/
Information on 084/7 Calling Costs (as part of compliance with general requirements for pricing information on NTS numbers)

I understand that Ofcom is currently conducting an investigation in to this matter and would be happy to provide you with copies of correspondence from www.yourcalls.net (my current domestic telecoms provider) suggesting that it would be far too complicated for them to publish their tariffs for calling all possible 084/7 numbers on their website.  I can also email you scanned copies of bills showing that they describe calls to 0845 numbers as Local Rate, even though they appear on a phone bill where all my Local Calls (up to 60 minutes) to numbers starting 01 and 02 are free of charge.

A matter that concerns me very greatly in respect of the behaviour of OCPs, in respect of the cost of calling these numbers, is their persistent misdescription of 0845 and 0870 numbers as respectively Lo-Call/Local Call/Local Rate Call and National Call/National Rate.  This was even true until not long ago of BT, who only belatedly began to refer to these calls on their phone bills as 0845 rate and 0870 rate (previously their senior management had always given me the excuse that technical problems with their phone billing system prevented them from describing the calls as anything other than Lo-Call/Local Rate or National Rate).

Do you think there is any possibility that the scope of your investigation may therefore also be further extended to encompass the call type description given to calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers on phone bills and in other promotional material by OCPs so that there is no possibility that Post Office Homephone for instance will go on calling 0845 Local Rate on phone bills purely on the basis that this is still what most of their competitors are doing!  I can also provide documentary proof that this is the Post Office's stated position following a recent high level complaint about their description of 0845 call costs on my phone bill with them.  As you may be aware unlike Ofcom the Advertising Standards Authority has no regulatory remit whatsoever over the content of phone bills as they are not deemed to constitute advertising material.  Also the ASA seems to think that their remit does not encompass most material published on the internet and yet most phone companies are now trying to compel their customers to access their phone bills online by charging them extra for continuing to receive paper based bills!

I look forward to your comments regarding this matter and especially whether you do feel the scope of this investigation could be extended by Ofcom to encompass the descriptive names given by retail telecoms providers to customers on their phone bills.  It seems to me that if this investigation by Ofcom is to achieve anything at all it must also consider the aspect of the descriptive names given to calls to various different types of 084/7 numbers by OCPs on phone bills.  Indeed to my mind Ofcom should mandate the description that can be used for various different types of 084/7 phone calls on domestic phone bills by OCPs.  If that does not happen the OCPs have consistently proven that they cannot be trusted to behave ethically, morally or truthfully in the way they describe the cost of these calls.

I believe that without tackling the widespread and quite deliberate continued misdescription of 0845 and 0870 as Local and National Rate by numerous domestic telecoms call providers that most of your other work in this area will have very little productive outcome.  It is the continued inculcation of the idea in the minds of the general public that 0845 and 0870 numbers are normal priced numbers is far more damaging to consumer misperceptions of the cost of calling these numbers than any actual failure to list the per minute prices of calling them on websites or in company brochures etc.  Of course for Pay As You Go mobile phone users a different approach again is needed since Ofcom currently thinks it is perfectly reasonable (quite wrongly in my view) for Pay As You Go mobile phone customers not to have any access whatsoever to any form of itemised billing (either on paper or online) detailing the cost of the calls that a customer has made.

I look forward to your comments.

Yours sincerely,

It is not just OCPs. TCPs do the same.

A number of OCPs have sought additional time to make the necessary changes to their advertising and promotional material.

Ofcom has therefore decided to extend this own-initiative investigation by a further 3 months to assess industry compliance with GC14.2 and GC.10.

How can OfcoN still claim to be independent when they allow OCPs to get away with this for more than 2 years?

If I had the money I'd challenge just how "independent" OfcoN are.  What can take so long it requires more than 2 years?

OCPs were warned in April 2006 about this and were given until 19th August 2006 to comply.  Now over 2 years later are we any closer?  Has OfcoN threatened to fine any OCPs still not complying?  Probably not - instead just say something like yea, no prob take as long as you need.  Is three extra months long enough?  If not, we'll just extend the deadline again and again.  Don't worry we're on your side!