I've just had a call back from PITO. Although no geo number was forthcoming, the individual did offer to help and could give numbers for local police stations etc. He did appear to be unaware that 0870 numbers have no guarantee of international termination - perhaps PITO has been duped by C&W (national rate garbage etc). Anyway the PITO rep was pleasant and helpful. The Met was rude, arrogant and uncaring. PITO confirmed it had received my FOI request, so I'll leave it at that. My MP has also received a copy of the complaint I have made to the Met, to Ofcom and to the Home Office. I have also complained to the embassy in DC.

PITO have to appear helpful in this situation as they are just about to hung out to dry by the Met.  They have to make it look like it was all just a terrible mistake.  But knowing that a former BT director is Chairman of their main board I personally don't believe a word of it!  They know exactly what 0870 numbers are all about.

The old boots who work on the Police switch boards are always rude to customers.  It is part of their macho we know best culture.

But if you approach them from the other direction at the highest level as someone moderately important in the local community that they have to be respectful to then they can appear to be quite helpful.

The Met are currently trying to pass the buck entirely to Pito on this although as I understand it Sir Ian Blair and his colleagues at the Met are not actually obliged to make use of Pito's services.  So ultimately the buck on this stops with Sir Ian.

Here is a copy of my letter to Phillip Webb, CEO/PITO sent this morning:

For the attention of Phillip Webb, Chief Executive Officer, PITO

CC Martha Wooldridge, Director of Communications, PITO
CC Tom McArthur, Director of Operational Services, PITO
CC Geoff Brighton, Ofcom NTS
CC Matt Peacock, Ofcom Communications
CC Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner, Metropolitan Police
CC Alisa Beaton, Director of Information, Metropolitan Police
CC The Home Office, Public Enquiries Office

Dear Mr Webb,

Yesterday, as a result of explosions in London, the Metropolitan Police issued a casualty bureau number that begins 0870. Such numbers are designed to generate revenue for either the provider, which I believe in this case to be C&W, the end-user of the service, or for both parties in a shared revenue scheme. Typically a daytime weekday call to an 0870 number will generate around four pence per minute in revenue. It is my understanding that PITO is partially or completely responsible for making arrangements with C&W to provide the casualty bureau number.

Ofcom, the UK regulator, acknowledges that the use of non-geographic numbers, of which 0870 is an example, may preclude those that live, work or travel overseas from being able to place a call from an overseas network. The following statement from Ofcom was supplied to me as a result of an FOI request made earlier this year:

"Ofcom is aware that callers may experience difficulty in accessing UK non-geographic numbers from outside the UK. This results from uncertainties over financial returns for routing between international operators caused by the variable cost of calls and imbalances between charges that can be retained or passed on through international arbitrage. UK residents dialing the non-geographic numbers of other countries from the UK frequently experience the same or similar problems. Individual countries do not normally permit access to non-geographic numbers from overseas. This is because these services are differently priced from geographic services and it is impossible for an operator in the originating country (which in many cases may not be transmitting the international part of the call) to know what the appropriate price and for the correct amount to be passed via several carriers and be paid to the terminating operator. " 

I am willing to make the full Ofcom document available on request. 

To summarize, there is no guarantee that calls from overseas to non-geographic numbers will be terminated. 

Why has PITO allowed a revenue-generating 0870 number to be used in such a serious situation? It is my understanding that the bureau was taking 42,000 calls per hour after initial set up. Given extensive queuing systems in place, this is a significant amount of revenue being generated as a result of a tragic incident. More importantly, the lack of planning to allow callers from overseas to connect to the bureau, particularly when they may be suffering great distress, is simply inexcusable.

I would contrast the attitude of PITO, the Home Office, The Metropolitan Police and Ofcom in giving out revenue-generating telephone numbers with what was achieved by the State Department here yesterday for concerned American citizens. A toll free number (888-407-4747) was given for those calling from within the United States and a standard geographic toll number (202-501-4444) in Washington DC was provided to terminate international originated calls. The comparison with what happened in the UK couldn't be greater. 

Whilst I accept that some calls originating from overseas will terminate on non-geographic numbers, there is no guarantee this will happen. I also do not accept that providing an 0870 number is the only method of handling large numbers of calls. The NTS regime would allow 0800 to be used for such an event with a geographic overlay for international callers. Equally, geographic numbers may also be used to intelligently route calls and perform other call handling capability that is possible with non-geographic calls.

As a British citizen resident overseas, I cannot dial the casualty bureau as my long distance provider does not route calls to non-geographic numbers for exactly the reasons given by Ofcom above. This problem will be repeated in many other countries and by many other telecommunication providers outside the United Kingdom. 

PITO, in common with some other agencies and departments, has been grossly negligent in preparing for this incident in the provision of a call center  that cannot accept many calls from overseas. I expect immediate action to be taken including the revealing of a standard geographic telephone number that will permit international inbound calls to be terminated.

In conclusion, the use of revenue-generating numbers after an incident when people have died, have had limbs amputated and suffered other horrific injuries is simply reprehensible. Someone within PITO has to take responsibility for this major failing. I also expect all revenue generated from this number to be used to help the victims of these explosions rather than ending up in C&W shareholders' pockets. 

I will be sending a copy of this email to my Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. 



Many thanks,
(address)
Sunny Florida, United States of America
Date July 8, 2005 (Eastern Daylight Time)

According to her page, she is Ailsa Beaton, although Alisa Beaton brings up some results in Google. I presume that the met's page on her is the correct spelling, so the email will be ailsa.beaton@met.police.uk - http://www.met.police.uk/about/beaton.htm

I'm not sure of this but under the FOI act are we able to ask (obviously in a month or so) just how much money they've made from people ringing this number and where it was all spent? Was it passed to charity or pocketed by our beloved government?

As I don't see how they can say its not in our (the public) interest!

(PS: I find it difficult to put 'beloved' and 'government' together like that - lol)

It's better not to waste your breath complaining to the Police, or London Mayor.  At best you'll get a fob-off standard response. At worst, they won't bother to reply.

It's better to complain to your MP about this.

A geographical number has now been released for people calling from overseas, it is 0207 158 0010.

However the met still continue to promote the 0870 number!!!!!!

See
www.met.police.uk/news/terrorist_attacks/