I have recently written to Ofcom regarding various newspaper articles and quotes from Ofcom spokesmen. Ofcom replies are always the same now, saying that they will report in August and will ask advertisers to state the BT rate for the calls. Nothing else is ever mentioned, even when I ask them directly. So it appears that they have already made their minds up, no surprise I know, but it seems to me that this is going to cause problems with competition laws, as they will be stating a Retail Price that cannot be undercut.
I am at a loss to know what more to do to be honest, anyone got any further ideas?

cheers

Flutty

My post of the 25th may would appear to agree exactly with what you are saying-will be a requirement to advertise  costs but very little else.  I was also surprised to read in another post that there had been so few complaints (just over 1000) about non geo numbers to Ofcom-and the comment by Ofcom that a lot of these were not complaining about the cost!  I am a local councillor and I know that recently the only way we were able to move the stance of the county council was to get residents to flood the authority with complaints addressed to the chief executive.  Ofcom seem to work on the basis that not many people are aware of the rip off and even if they were aware would not do anything about it because they don't care enough.  So I feel that we should respond as a body which I know has been suggested before and dismissed.  I will continue to write to Ofcom as a lone voice but would suggest that anybody who has an interest should write.  I write to Geoff Brighton as I understand he is the person handling the investigation into NTS pricing but if anybody has a name for a more influential person who I should contact please advise me.  

I will try and get the leader of my political group to write as well.

For a consultation which closed at the beginning of the year, Ofcom is taking its time over producing the response. What happened to "early 2005", as stated by Matt Peacock on You and Yours? Come to that, he admitted that these numbers are premium rate in all but name; so is this to be put right? Will they be called 'premium rate'?

It does look as though Ofcom's decision will be that they will be described as 'upto x p/min'. Some companies and government bodies have changed to this already. If this is going to be the case, then how will this affect the public's opinion/perception of these numbers? Will it make them more aware of the scam? If so, will companies react by changing to geographical (or even better, freephone) numbers? Or will they be completely confused, afterall they were originally (supposedly) linked to geographical local and national rates?

Or will companies which now use 0870 at 'up to 8p/min' simply change to 0844 at 5p/min [at all times], creating the 'illusion' that they have somehow reduced the rate? Come to think of it, NEG has already pulled this one off with the Department of Health.

How do Ofcom plan to enforce any changes?

With the sheer number of companies using 084/087 numbers it's an impossible task make sure every organisation complies. With ICSTIS which, issues fines but can't enforce them, is there any chance that Ofcom's 'solution' will be realised? Or will the national rate lie simply continue, especially with the many small companies who don't understand it all or are quite happy to rip-off their customers?