Key Points

Response Deadline: 6th December 2005

Key Points

Currently all landline providers and most mobile networks exclude calls to non-geographical numbers (those beginning 084x/087x) from any inclusive/free minutes you have and are therefore charged separately. For example, most consumers benefit from either free weekend calls or capped evening and weekend calls upto 5.5p for an hour and due to the revenue sharing on these non-geographical numbers, they are excluded from such packages. This means that those that pay extra to have inclusive/free minutes with their telephone provider and in some cases paying an extra £15 on top of their line-rental (£25.50 overall) for these inclusive/free minutes, then pay extra additional charges (upto 10p/min) to these non-geographical numbers (those beginning 084x/087x). These non-geographical numbers are very popular amongst companies and Government departments so it is impossible to avoid ringing them.

0870 - Charge the same price as geographical (01/02) numbers and stop companies profiting who operate on them

Telephone numbers starting 0870 cost from 7.5p/min from a BT landline (and in some cases upto 40p/min from mobiles). This often allows the company you are calling to be paid revenue which may be 4p/min or more. This is known as 'revenue sharing'. The amount of revenue usually varies depending on the volume of calls that a company receives. In fact, an 0870 number can be seen as a stealth premium rate number because the caller (us consumers) often isn't aware that the company they are calling is actually benefiting financially from it. Many larger companies can sometimes have queue times of greater than 20minutes during busy periods and the company is still gaining revenue from you holding.

When a call is answered by an automated recording and placed in a queue, these revenue payments may be viewed as the receiver taking money from the caller, just for the privilege. The caller is powerless and must pay if he/she wishes to communicate with the company.

Calling an 0870 number costs two and a half times that of a call to a national geographical number on the UK's most common tariff, BT Together Option 1. This is BT's 'basic' tariff. For those with other providers, the gap is often even wider. Inclusive call packages where 01/02 numbers are 'free' always charge for calls to 0870.

Ofcom propose to end the revenue sharing on 0870 numbers. This will hopefully bring down the price of these calls to that of a geographical calls, meaning that they may be included in 'inclusive' call packages. For those telephone companies that don't charge these numbers at the same price as geographical numbers, it is proposed that they will have a call announcement at the beginning of the call to inform consumers of the call charge.

0845 Numbers - No change for the next two years

Calls to 0845 numbers cost from 3p/min from a BT landline (in some cases upto 40p/min from mobiles). Revenue on this number is lower than that of 0870 and 0871. Numbers prefixed with 0845 were known as 'local rate', but now due to fall in cost to geographical numbers (those beginning 01 or 02), 0845 can be more expensive than local geographical calls and are generally also excluded from inclusive call packages.

Ofcom propose to do nothing about revenue sharing or the pricing of these numbers for the next two years when it will look again and consider the options. This decision is mainly due to the fact that most calls to 0845 numbers are to pay as you go dial-up internet service providers who need the revenue to survive. If the revenue sharing was removed from 0845, ISPs would need to (and can if they want) change their dial-up numbers, probably to ones prefixed 0844. An 0844 that currently costs the same as 0845 could be chosen and this would mean that the revenue sharing from 0845 can also be removed similar to 0870 numbers.

0871 Numbers - Reclassify as Premium Rate

The prices of calling 0871 numbers varies between numbers. However, they can be upto 10p/min or per call from a BT landline (and in some cases upto 40p/min from mobiles and upto 50p/min from BT payphones). The same issues mentioned for 0870 numbers (call revenue, call queuing, etc) also apply to 0871 numbers as well. The revenue the company receives on these calls is higher than that of 0870 numbers.

Ofcom propose to reclassify 0871 as a premium rate number. This would mean that a company operating on one will have to follow ICSTIS premium rate guidelines. ICSTIS guidelines are more strict and are there for consumer protection. For example, call queuing is prohibited which means you only pay for the call when you actually get to speak to a human, and not whilst being kept in a queue waiting for someone to answer your call (as described above for 0845/0870 numbers at present).

0844 Numbers - Better pricing information

Different 0844 numbers are charged at a different rates, which can be upto 5p/min or per call from a BT landline (in some cases upto 40p/min from mobiles). Whilst the revenue may be lower than 087x numbers, the issue with call queuing is still there.

Ofcom propose not do anything about revenue sharing or preventing queuing on this number range. It proposes that consumer awareness of call charges is improved instead.

Adult services - Confined to 09x Numbers

Ofcom proposes to move any adult service that is using an 08x number to move to a 09x prefixed number. This is because many adult services are using 0870 numbers to generate revenue from the call without being subject to ICSTIS' guidelines. Additionally, because adult services are using the 08x numbers, it makes it very difficult for consumers to block access to them and therefore stop children from ringing them.

The reason telephone companies cannot reduce the price of calling these numbers is because they must pay the telephone company providing the 084x/087x number. For them to do so would mean that they would be allowing callers to connect to them at a loss, i.e. it would cost them more than what the caller is paying.

Some suggested issues to bring up in your response to the Way Forward consultation:

• Leaving 0845 numbers as they are will make them more expensive than 0870. At present 080x numbers being free, and 087x are more expensive than 084x numbers. The proposals mean that whilst 080x will remain free, 0845 will be more expensive than 0870, and 0871 will be more expensive than 0844. So in ascending order of price we will have 080x, 0870, 084x and 0871.

  Ofcom's justification for leaving 0845 as it is is due to the number of pay as you go internet service providers out there. They need the income from their 0845 numbers to run their services. The consultation document says that it would be difficult (and costly) to migrat those services to another number prefix.

  However, this leaves many voice helplines on 0845. Many of these probably used this prefix as it was the price of a 'local call', or at least because it was less expensive than 0870. Therefore the proposals leave companies on 0845 at an advantage to those on 0870, bearing in mind the fact that those on 0870 set out to disadvantage their 'local' callers by charging 'national rate'.

• Ofcom views these 084x and 087x services as 'value added services'. This term isn't defined in the glossary of the consultation. There is consumer concern over whether calls to customer service lines of banks and insurance companies (for example) are 'value added'. Calls to numbers which allow cheap international calls may be viewed as a value added service.

• Consumers aren't aware of the 'revenue' passed to them from the telephone companies. Therefore, how can they [the consumers] recognise that a service is 'value added'?

• The consulation document suggests that Ofcom's own research shows that businesses don't know what their customers pay to call them. See 1.31, bullet 4 of the full document.

• Ofcom thinks that companies operating on these numbers should compete on the price of a call to their number. So in the same way you can go into the supermarket and choose from different washing up powders at different prices, you can do the same with telephone 'services'. However, with little or no pricing information, how is this possible?

To view Ofcom's summary please visit here.

Consultation questions

We'd like you to answer the following questions that relate to the information above and Ofcom's summary here. They are taken from annex 3 of the full NTS consultation document, which you can download here (in pdf format).

If you wish to view received responses so far regarding this consultation then please visit here.

Some questions were only relevant to telephone providers and not for consumers, so these have been omitted to save confusion.

Question 1: Do you agree with our proposal that revenue sharing should no longer be allowed on 0870 calls if the link between 0870 call prices and prices for 01 and 02 geographic calls is restored?

Question 2: In connection with Option B4 and B5, do you agree with Ofcom’s initial view that 0870 calls should be removed from the scope of the NTS Condition if the geographical link between 0870 calls and geographical calls is restored?

Question 4: What do you think of our proposal to extend the rules controlling premium-rate services using 09 numbers to include 0871 numbers?

Question 5: Do you agree we should insist that any adult entertainment services using 08 numbers have to move to the 09 numbers set aside for this type of content?

Question 7: Do you agree that the package of measures we propose to introduce will tackle most of the problems with Number Translation Services? If not, what else do you think we could do and why?

Questionnaire Replies

The consulation was published on the 28th September 2005 and the deadline for responses is 6th December 2005. You can download the consultation coversheet with the questions here (Word format), or here (RTF - RichText format).

Please also don't forget the second consultation titled, "Providing consumers with improved information about Number Translation Services (NTS) and Premium Rate Services (PRS)", here.

Questionnaires can can be e-mailed to nts@ofcom.org.uk (no hard-copy is needed for email responses), or alternatively, you can post or fax to:-

Clive Hillier
NTS Consultation
Competition and Markets
Fourth Floor
Ofcom
Riverside House
2A Southwark Bridge Road
London
SE1 9HA.

Fax: 020 7783 4103. Mark fax for the attention of Clive Hillier, NTS Consultation.

Ofcom do not usually acknowledge receipt of your comments. Please tell them if you want any part of your comments to be confidential. Please also tell them if they can publish your comments when they receive them or whether you'd like them to wait until the consultation period has ended. It will help Ofcom if you use the consultation cover sheet when you send them your response.