I have just registered for this site, why when I search for a number starting with 0345 it doesn't come up with any searches

CJT-80 wrote on Jan 16^th, 2018 at 7:59pm:


CJT-80 firstly its not true that 03 numbers are always charged at the same rate as 01/02 numbers if the originating caller is calling from outside the UK.  This is because unfortunately Ofcom's GC17 only applies to calls from the UK and in the real world 03 numbers unfortunately still cost significantly more to connect and per minute for the OCP than 01/02 numbers.  This is why the cost of services such as 1815.co.uk has gone up considerably from 5p connection charge and 0p per minute to 5p connection charge and 0.5p per minute or more (I make most of my daytime calls on my mobile now so may be out of date on their pricing).   This is because so many of the daytime calls they connect are now to 03 number destinations.

Also if you visit http://m.orange.es/en/personal/mobile-service-plans/international-calls/mundo/ and select Reino Unido you will see they currently charge 3 Euros a minute for all NTS numbers from an Orange Spain mobile including 03 rather than differentiating between lower cost 03 and 0845 and extortion level 09 NTS.

I have previously corresponded with them at CEO level about this but it seems impossible to persuade them to institute a fair charging system.  As 03 numbers are part of the UK NTS system and GC17 does not apply in Spain I am quite sure this is what Orange Spain are charging to UK 03 numbers compared to 5 cents a minute to a UK geographic number.  The solution to this is to use one's UK mobile for the time being but that's not much help if you are a Spaniard calling on a Spanish landline and who knows what will happen to calling the UK on a UK mobile from Spain once we fully leave the EU at the end of 2020???