Why in heavens name are we now being taken along the 0871 route. Just when we had the facility to combat 0870 &0845, this new thing arrives. I am most annoyed.

Nothing new about them being used to extract money from Joe Public. ;)

Calls to them cost from 6p to 10p a minute from a BT Landline depending on the numbering range.

Just what were OfCom thinking of when they allowed 0871 & 0844? As I see it the original logic behind 0845 & 0870 was that the cost of calls to these numbers would be the same as local and national calls when these things existed. Would I be right in assuming that the 0870 would cost up to 7p a minute? Then the telephone companies put forward two new codes (44/71) which cost 2/3p per minute more again and have no connection or resemblance to the so-called local/national scenario. Shouldn't OfCom have stipulated that they should each be no more to ring than 45/70?

Quite a number of shops and companies where I live now have 0871 & 0844. I've even seen an 0872. How can calling a local computer shop be classed as a 'special service'? Or are they offering something I haven't yet spotted?  ;D

The whole thing is an utter shambles.

terryhickmott wrote on Aug 11^th, 2008 at 3:33pm:

Just what were OfCom thinking of when they allowed 0871 & 0844? As I see it the original logic behind 0845 & 0870 was that the cost of calls to these numbers would be the same as local and national calls when these things existed. Would I be right in assuming that the 0870 would cost up to 7p a minute? Then the telephone companies put forward two new codes (44/71) which cost 2/3p per minute more again and have no connection or resemblance to the so-called local/national scenario. Shouldn't OfCom have stipulated that they should each be no more to ring than 45/70? Quite a number of shops and companies where I live now have 0871 & 0844. I've even seen an 0872. How can calling a local computer shop be classed as a 'special service'? Or are they offering something I haven't yet spotted?  ;D The whole thing is an utter shambles.

Surely you must understand that Ofcom is not actually a regulator at all as it pretends to be but is in fact a cosy trade association for the telecoms industry in disguise. ;)

Therefore the obvious thing to do for Ofcom to appear to being something when 0845 and 0870 came under attack due to deliberately still being misdescribed as local rate and national rate by those using them was to create two new codes that never ever had been local or national rate but that would be mistaken as such by the average man in the street because the numbers were almost the same.  Thus the reason for issuing 0844 and 0871 and not say 0601 or some other number range never used for freephone or "local rate" or "national rate" calls was in order for Ofcom to ensure the maximum chance of the public continuing to be hoodwinked by their telco buddies.

Then to top all this off Ofcom still continually fails to ever fine or take any meaningful action against phone companies who continue to deliberately misdescribe 0845 and 0870 as "local rate" and "national rate" on customer phone bills, even though it Ofcom is directly responsible for regulating phone bill content and also ensuring its accuracy and the Advertising Standards Authority has no remit at all in this area.

Also you must understand that Ofcom has a recruitment procedure that absolutely ensures they only recruit over qualified corporate yes men without any campaigning zeal or pro consumer agenda whatsoever in their bones and as a consequence the final outcome of this pathetic shambles is more or less inevitable. :o >:( :'(