(BT have confirmed that this will take effect from Friday 16th January 2009)


DC09-002                                                                                                January 8, 2009

BT £24M GIVEAWAY HELPS 14m CUSTOMERS SAY NO TO 0870


BT today offered some New Year cheer to 14 million customers by becoming the first UK telephone company to make calls to 0870 and 0845 numbers free.
    Customers have often complained that their calling packages did not include the 0870 and 0845 numbers which are frequently used by banks, insurance companies and even doctor’s surgeries. Calls to these numbers cost more than usual, with Sky and Virgin charging around 10p a minute for a daytime 0870 call.
    BT has always charged much cheaper rates, but has now decided to go even further. In a move costing BT tens of millions, the company has decided to give customers what they want by including 0870 and 0845 numbers in call packages.*
    An Anytime customer will now get their calls to these numbers for free – as well as all their calls to UK landlines and great rates on mobile calls – for just £4.85 a month, which works out at less than the cost of a second class stamp a day.
    A customer who is on the Evening and Weekend package will get their 0870 and 0845 calls for free, as well as their UK landline calls, after 6pm every day and all weekend.
    No UK phone company has ever included these call types in their packages before, because 0845 and 0870 numbers generate large revenues for the banks, utility firms and other organisations that use them.    
    However, customers resented the high charges for 0870 and 0845 numbers, especially as the organisations using them were seen to be making a profit from them. Campaigners even set up a web site to let customers know other numbers to call the same companies, called saynoto0870.
    The Government recently announced a review of doctors and NHS departments using 084 numbers, because customers complained they should not be charged more to call for medical help.
    John Petter, managing director of BT’s Consumer business, said: “We know that the public is frustrated by having to pay higher charges for these numbers, even though BT’s rates were cheaper than our rivals, so we worked out a way to go further and include calls to 0870 and 0845 numbers in our call packages.
    “These numbers are widely used by banks, utilities and even NHS Direct, and our customers spend 30 minutes a month on average calling these numbers. We hope we have taken a sting out of the price of these calls, but also removed one of those irritations that customers believed was an unfair anomaly.
    “All of our 14m calls customers have free calls included in their package and now all 14m have free calls to 0870 and 0845 at times that fit with their calling plan, which is something not offered by any of our competitors.”

*excludes ISP dial-up numbers and indirect access numbers. Full details at bt.com.

The table below shows how much you can save on a 10-minute call made on a Saturday morning:

     BT      Virgin Media      Talk Talk      Tiscali      Sky      Post Office
0845 Numbers      FREE      75p      26p      45p      67p      10p
0870 Numbers      FREE      £1.04      65p      85p      £1.07      20p

Prices correct at time of going to print. Comparison based on pence-per-minute rates and set-up fees charged after 8am at the weekend (correct December 2008). Competitor monthly line rental costs from £11 (Virgin Media), £10.50 (TalkTalk), £10.99 (Tiscali), £10 (Sky) and £10.72 (Post Office). Content of packages vary and prices quoted exclude calling circle discounts, where applicable.

Inquiries about this news release should be made to Michael Jarvis on 020 7356 6045  or the BT Group Newsroom on its 24-hour number: 020 7356 5369. From outside the UK, dial +44 20 7356 5369.

All BT Group news releases can be accessed at our web site: www.bt.com/newscentre.


About BT

BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services operating in 170 countries.  Its principal activities include the provision of networked IT services globally; local, national and international telecommunications services to our customers for use at home, at work and on the move; broadband and internet products and services and converged fixed/mobile products and services.  BT consists principally of four lines of business: BT Global Services, Openreach, BT Retail and BT Wholesale.

In the year ended 31 March 2008, BT Group’s revenue was £20,704 million with profit before taxation and specific items of £2,506 million.

British Telecommunications plc (BT) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group.  BT Group plc is listed on stock exchanges in London and New York.  

This will really put the cat amongst the pidgeons!

Well done BT. It is a good competitive move and it will be interesting to see what the fallout is.

However this doesn't excuse all those who use these numbers and the problem will still exist with other providers, mobile users.

What about 0844?

What possible justification (not that there was one) can someone using 0844 give now?

Damn, now I'll have to think of something else to post on 1 April...

Of course, so many companies have already switched from 0870 to 0844 or 0871, either to increase revenue, or to avoid Ofcom's changes that in the event never materialised anyway. It's getting far more rare to see 0870 numbers advertised.

Anyone with BT should probably still avoid 0845 and 0870 numbers so as to deny the greedy companies using these numbers their revenue share. After all, it'll ultimately be BT customers paying for this as BT will claw back the cost by tweaking other prices ("call set-up" fees, rounding, daytime call costs for those without inclusive calls, etc.)

Having said that, will I really bother to visit the site to find a geographical number now it won't be saving me money, particularly when the alternative numbers often don't get through to quite the right place? Probably not, although I'll still be happy to hunt for alternate numbers when people request them.

allybalder wrote on Jan 8^th, 2009 at 11:04am:

Of course. These are no longer the numbers making the biggest money, which is probably why BT can afford to do this now. The biggest rip-off merchants have already moved on to 0844 or 0871 (and now also 0843 and 0872).

And also now why we finally know why BT has worked so hard to convert most of its NTS customers on 0845 and 0870 to 0844 and 0871 over the last couple of years don't we.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Jan 8^th, 2009 at 11:39am:


Genuine loss leaders are one thing but leveraging the benefits of being both an OCP and a TCP in respect of the vast majority of 0845 and 0870 numbers made in a way other parties cannot hope to do is clearly anti competitive.

Up to now the clearly anti competitive and artificially subsidised BT 0845 daytime rate of 2p per minute has been a small pin prick for its competitors but the publicity and aggressive selling BT will use in connection with this move will be like a large knife wound and I would expect a major complaint and investigation for anti competitive behaviour against BT by the likes of Talktalk, Tiscali, Sky and Cable & Wireless.  I would expect this to end up at the Competition Appeals Tribunal if Ofcom sides with BT.

By the way what has suddenly brought Daniel back to life as a forum participant.  Has he just retuned from his winter stint in Lapland or something?

mark1979 wrote on Jan 8^th, 2009 at 12:56pm:


Indeed this is very hard for us at SayNoTo0870 to understand Mark since BT, other NTS number vendors and of course you and your colleagues at Windsor Telecom have clearly been spending much of the last couple of years telling anyone with an 0870 number who wanted to hang on to revenue share that they should be replacing it with an 0844 number instead.

So this is clearly all about appearance rather than substance, especially when BT lay claim to doing away with the problem of being surcharged for calling your doctor in their press release and this is clearly totally untrue (all doctors surgeries using revenue sharing NTS numbers now use 0844)

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I would hope it was also applicable in the weekday daytime to any BT residential customers on their 24/7 inclusive calls package (BT Option 3 as was).

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Not necessarily as they don't terminate the same percentage of calls to NTS numbers as BT does so may not be able to afford to do so.  Also BT makes large profits on customers who just pay line rental and make very few out of bundle calls (contrary to whatever accounting slight of hand they may use to make claims to the contrary) while their competitors don't make anything on line rental and can only make any money at all on call bundles plus the many call types excluded from bundles.

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I am sure that many of us here never thought we would see the day when Windsor telecom would finally see the light on this issue.

As the old biblical saying goes:-

"There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who need no repentance.  There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who comes home than 99 people already there."