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Lancshire County Council 0845 (Read 7,606 times)
derrick
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Lancshire County Council 0845
Oct 1st, 2007 at 2:25pm
 
On the back of the Traveline/LCC thread "Tax payers foot £32,000 sign bill " http://www.saynoto0870.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.cgi?num=1186701484

I made a request to LCC for the number behind their 0845 053 000, the one they have supplied is different to the one in the database re the same 0845 number and has come straight from the horses mouth so to speak.

Dear Mr ******

Further to your recent request for information and our previous correspondence regarding this matter, with the exception of part (c), in relation to which we anticipate that we should be able to provide you with an answer by the end of this week, we are now in a position to respond to your enquiry insofar as it relates to Lancashire County Council's use of 0845 numbers. Each aspect is dealt with in turn below.

[b]a)      Why do you use 0845 numbers?
[/b]
The main reasons behind Lancashire County Council's decision to use an 0845 contact number were to establish a single memorable number and to implement a non-geographic number that would cost the same when called from any location in Lancashire.

b)      What is the equivalent geographical numbers?

The equivalent geographical contact number for Lancashire County Council is 01772 254868.

c)       What revenue do you receive per minute and in total from the use of 0845 numbers?



d)      Are you aware of the revenue collected by your telecom provider, from your callers?

Lancashire County Council does not hold any information regarding the amount of revenue collected by our telecommunications provider from our callers.

e)      Have you considered the revised COI guidelines?

As the implementation of Lancashire County Council's '0845' service predated the publication of the guidelines to which you refer, they were not considered as part of the procurement process and consequently Lancashire County Council does not hold any information relevant to this aspect of your enquiry.

f)        If so, what conclusions did you come to?

Not applicable.

g)      Are you aware of ASA/CAP rules on the use of these numbers?


As the use of 0845 numbers by Lancashire County Council falls outside the scope of The CAP Code, Lancashire County Council does not hold any information relevant to this aspect of your enquiry.

h)      If so, what conclusions did you come to?


Not applicable.

i)        Do you realise that all calls (local/national) cost the same?

The Freedom of Information Act provides for the general right of access to recorded information held by public authorities and specifies the conditions which need to be fulfilled before an authority is obliged to comply with a request. Although Lancashire County Council does not hold any information relevant to this aspect of your enquiry, it is generally recognised that some service providers now charge the same rate for national and local calls. However, this depends on the particular service provider and the tariff chosen by the individual customer.

j)        Do you realise that 0845 numbers now offer no cost advantage to callers, irrespective of their location, only disadvantages?

As this part of your enquiry does not, in its present form, relate to recorded information held by Lancashire Council, we are unable to comply with this aspect of your request. However, in the event that you are able to rephrase this appropriately as a request for recorded information held by the Authority, we would be more than happy to deal with your enquiry in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

k)       Are you aware of the cost implications to your callers, when using 0845 numbers?

As above.

l)        Please supply the geographical number for LCC.


As specified in our response to point (b) the geographical general contact telephone number for Lancashire County Council is 01772 245868.

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derrick
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Re: Lancshire County Council 0845
Reply #1 - Oct 1st, 2007 at 4:03pm
 
Dear Mr

Further to your telephone call this afternoon, please find below the extract relating to pricing and 0845 telephone numbers, as agreed.

We will endeavour to provide you will a more detailed response as soon as possible.

What revenue do you receive per minute and in total from the use of 0845 numbers?


         
The main 0845 number used by LCC was procured via open European tender in January 2003. Whilst there are small payments to LCC for high volume use of the service the main benefit is in the zero charges for line installation and rental. The section on Pricing in the tender response reads as follows: -

                                                           SECTION 3 ~ PRICING


                                                          Day      Economy         Weekend      

Start Point                                             0                 0                  0               Nil Charge

                       
>£2m  minutes Per annum                     -0.3          -0.1                  0           Outpayment
                       
>£4m minutes per annum                     -0.4          -0.1                  0             Outpayment
                       
>£8m minutes per annum                     -0.6          -0.2                   0             Outpayment
                       
>£14m minutes per annum                    Tba        Tba                    Tba             Tba



There are no installation or line rental charges to the Council with the new 0845 number.

The call charges and subsequent out payments are based on each and every call lasting longer than 75 seconds.

The above rates assume that all the calls will be deliver on Your Communications directly connected exchange lines.

Business Day is 0800 to 1800 hours, Monday to Friday.
Evening is all other times, Monday to Friday.
Weekend is at all times on Saturday and Sunday.



So the Council receive a Financial Incentive, and as this number has been in existence for 4½ years there is a tidy sum being made by someone!

Until recently, I did not know the Council had this number as all the 01772 numbers have and still do work, although they do not advertise them, I cannot see that it is of any financial gain to the Council, as they appear to still have all of their 01772 lines still operational?

I do not know what the abbreviations stand for, but if the "£2m minutes" means millions of pounds, then I cannot see the Council profiting from the revenue share, although the telco,(thus Telecom), must do!
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« Last Edit: Oct 1st, 2007 at 4:03pm by derrick »  
 
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derrick
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Re: Lancshire County Council 0845
Reply #2 - Oct 2nd, 2007 at 11:32am
 
Have just received the following e-mail from LCC;-

Dear Mr. ******,

Further to our previous correspondence regarding this matter, we are now in a position to respond to the outstanding aspect of your enquiry as follows:

c)       What revenue do you receive per minute and in total from the use of 0845 numbers?

As part of the contract response from the tender winning supplier (OJEU 2005) the 0845 service offers the possibility of revenue streams for Lancashire County Council based on call duration volume thresholds.

The threshold set for the contract is 4 million call minutes per annum (this was based on estimated duration volumes into the Customer Service Centre when fully operational with all services) at which point the Authority would receive 0.75 pence per minute provided call durations remained above the threshold.

To this date Lancashire County Council has not reached the threshold level to activate this revenue stream; and is some way off achieving this level in the foreseeable future.

In line with recent Government guidelines and directives concerning the use of 0845 services Lancashire County Council is investigating the cost and impact in moving away from these services. The contract for PSTN services for the Authority's corporate telephony system is due for renewal (through a full OJEU tender process) in September 2008 at which time the revenue aspect of the current contract will be withdrawn from the specification requirement.


So it looks to me that the only winners in this deal are the suppliers of the 0845 number,( Thus Telecom), as they must be receiving the  0.75p per minute that the Council would receive if it went over 4 million minutes per annum, and the only losers are the Council taxpayers who are having to call this number
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