bikeman wrote on Jul 25
th, 2009 at 2:06pm:
When are you going to set up a website called 'saynotobeingchargedforfreephonecallsfromymobile.com' ?
This is a good suggestion, albeit a clumsy name.
It will be necessary to confirm that (as with the other points made) it is the claim of "freephone" that is the problem.
I am not aware of anyone who has clearly stated a desire to pick up the cost of calls from all sources, including mobiles. That is perhaps why there is no standard arrangement with a reserved range of numbers that offer this feature. It is reasonable to assume that if sufficient representations had been made to Ofcom to provide such a range, then it would have been provided.
The proposed website could perhaps aim to gather together those who wanted such a facility, so as to make strong representations to Ofcom on this point.
To avoid being short sighted, campaigning on this issue needs to be handled with some care so as not to undermine two existing features. Firstly, the fact that some would withdraw their "freephone" facility if compelled to meet the cost of calling them from mobiles also. Secondly, the mobile operators waive their charges on calls to "helplines", under an arrangement brokered by the Telephone Helplines Association. They are also known to have extended this arrangement to other numbers, such as the National Pandemic Flu Service. These arrangements are purely voluntary and not universally applicable.
If one were content for these facilities to be lost for the sake of a coherent prinicple, that would be a valid position to take. To address the concerns of the OP however, one must approach this issue with an awareness of the implications.
(The wider question of how the costs of mobile telephony are distributed between purchase price, rental and call charges is a quite separate issue, although changes could provide a resolution to the particular issue.)