I've been getting a telephone number appearing up to 24 times a month on my itemised bill. I have contacted my service provider but they can't help with this one. The number is: 08708507782 it's an NG3 and only lasts for 6 seconds and always at 28 minutes past midnight. I've tried calling this number but it seems to be some kind of automated machine that makes a few bleeping noises for 6 seconds!! and then the connection is dropped. Is there anyone out there that can throw some light on this?

~ Edited by Dave: Thread title amended

Do you have an alarm system that is connected to a phone line? A Sky box?

Yes, as a matter of fact I have an alarm system that if set off will first try to contact my mobile so that if I'm not far away I can get back and sort it out. If I'm out of my area then an automatic call is made to call out the local security duty engineer to go and investigate. So the alarm system must be able to dial automatically. Could this regular 6 second call after midnight be the alarm checking the line?

Yes, that is probably it. It is probably contacting the monitoring centre to tell them it is still "alive". Unfortunately, it seems that the companies that run these centres tend to use 0870 numbers so they can generate a bit of revenue when it calls them.

Thank you for your help. I have e-mailed one of the local security engineers, who I know well, to ask him about this issue. If this resolves the mystery I'll let you know.

No worries. You would probably be worth contacting the people who provide your alarm system and say that you don't wish to have you system calling an 0870 number, and would prefer it called a normal geographic number instead. They'll probably refuse but it's worth a shot.

James

We've had this come up numerous times in fact I'm surprised that bbb_uk didn't jump on this straight away. He's dealt with most of them previously so why don't you pick his brains.

As the alarm unit is only on a short time, you don't pay very much so it doesn't matter whether it's a Non Geo or not. You'll only pay the basic charge for it ie. the minimum (on BT). If you don't pay for your Geo calls (inclusive or whatever) I admit that you're paying more, but not much.

Most of these units are preprogrammed with the 0870 number so it's nigh on impossible to change it without having an engineer to assist you by -

i.  Giving you a Geo alternative (like rocking horse wotsit)
ii. Helpng you to reprogram the eeprom with the alternative data  ::)

. . . and we all know how likely that is  :-/

You were right on jgxenite. I had a phone call from the afore mentioned engineer and he confirmed that it was indeed the alarm handshaking with the control centre. Thanks again.

Alarm company ADT are worst for this. Last time I heard about it a customers contract, I believe, stated a geographic number would be called daily. This was subsequently changed on a regular service engineer visit, without telling him.
As the customer had an inclusive geographic call package he demanded it be put back to geographic as per contract. He was refused for some spurious technical reason. He told them to concel his contract as they were in breach.
They rapidly found a solution to the technical obstacle!
When you pay for a monitoring service it is iniquitous that you should pay for the wherewithal to check THEIR equipment

BigK wrote on May 28^th, 2008 at 4:42pm:

Alarm company ADT are worst for this. …

Indeed, see the discussion thread Arrogant Companies - ADT.