Quote:

Interesting post.

TT have traditionally used the same call pricing as BT for 084 and 087 numbers - thereby deriving little or no financial benefit from call origination.

This price rise takes the rates for NGNs up to something that appear to be much closer to the expected new Service Charge levels that will apply once Ofcom's "unbundled tariffs" come into force.

At the point of implementation of unbundled tariffs, phone networks will no longer be allowed to charge a separate connection fee for 084, 087 and 09 numbers. That fee is currently around 14p on most landline networks. The new call cost will simply be the sum of the Service Charge and the Access Charge, both billed as per-minute rates.

I'm still trying to work out the logic of the current move. When Ofcom's unbundled tariffs come into force, I guess it will allow TT to remove the connection fee, replace it with a small Access Charge and the total call price won't change all that much. Indeed, if the Service Charge turns out to be a little less than the new call rates recently advertised, it might allow TT to impose a slightly larger Access Charge while appearing to retain or slightly reduce the overall call price.

With the imposition of unbundled tariffs comes greater visibility of the both the Service Charge and the Access Charge for what they really are. I suspect some level of competition (on Access Charges) between suppliers will ensue. I guess various companies will tweak their prices in the next few months so as to position themselves for when unbundled tariffs come into force.

One interesting point with the new rates, as advertised, is that g6 rate is 0.2p/min LESS than the rate for g11. This seems absurd until you realise that TalkTalk are receiving the call termination fees, paid by every landline and mobile phone network, for calls to the thousand GP surgeries still using 0844 numbers - most of whom are using 0844 numbers on the g6 tariff.