grahammay2 wrote on Jan 28
th, 2010 at 10:54am:
I like many
other people strongly object to dialing numbers that are outside 'call inclusive packages'.
Is this something that the telecoms regulator should be sorting.
Please advise of your thoughts.
Some believe that all revenue sharing numbers (all those beginning 084) should be banned altogether or classified as being used for "Premium Rate Services" and thereby the users would have to be registered and regulated as providers of telecoms services.
"Revenue sharing" means that part of the charge imposed by the telephone company with whom the call is made is passed on to the company at the other end (to the benefit of whoever receives the call). This is at a fixed rate. I think it wholly wrong that part of the fee paid for an inclusive package should be used for this purpose. This is what happens with those companies who currently include calls to 0845 numbers in packages, in effect, everybody is paying money to those who receive calls on 0845 numbers.
Ofcom, the regulator will shortly be addressing the perverse regulatory situation which has enabled BT to be able to get away with this. If BT holds with its decision to include them in packages, then this will continue to cost all BT customers a lot of money. Assuming that the regulations are changed then BT customers would be able to save a lot of money if BT were to offer inclusive packages without 0845.
Most callers would only be willing to pay a premium charge to contact someone if they were prepared to proudly declare that they offered a "premium rate service" and advised the charge that they made for it. On this website we "say no" to those who use 084 numbers, without making any such declaration. I would also wish us to "say no" to those telephone companies who make us all pay the premium by including 0845 calls in packages.