SilentCallsVictim wrote on Nov 6
th, 2008 at 12:53am:
I hope I do not risk having my "senior member" status revoked by revealing that I have little interest in subscribing to services from uncontactable offshore discount telephone service providers that require you to dial override prefixes for some calls as well as consulting the clock, a set of tariff tables and perhaps a website before making a telephone call.
I believe that this places me in the same position as most of those whose interests we are aiming to serve by campaigning against improper use of revenue sharing numbers. (I recognise that others have wider campaigning objectives.)
...
I completely agree with you, SilentCallsVictim. We should ensure that people can make calls
at standard cost to any company or organisation they need to call. If there is some special prefix that allows cheaper calls for particular numbers, all well and good, but no-one can expect that to be universal for all numbers. Rather, they should consider it a special deal on the numbers to which the cheaper call
is available.
With a (partial) end to revenue sharing, we have a far less distorted market. Providers are free to offer whatever prices they want to call particular numbers. It's up to the consumer: pay a bit more line rental for inclusive calls, or pay less line rental but pay for daytime calls. This was never an option with 0870 numbers.
Having said that, there's no reason we can't offer alternative 01/02 numbers for 03 numbers in the database. And if an 0845 number exists, it will presumably already be in the database - it's possible to search for the 03 number and find an 0845 number, if that's cheaper during the daytime.