SilentCallsVictim wrote on Aug 4^th, 2009 at 3:19pm:


You  are raising deep questions about the purpose and basis for the existence of this website SCV.    I understand your reason to be that you invite input from other contributors to this Forum to help you formulate your responses to questions, which may come your way, which doubt the legitimate purpose of this website and even attack it for undermining the status quo and the stability and success of the telecommunications industry, leading to a loss of the moral fibre of this country, the rule of law, and ultimately the existence of a civilised society.   I see your motive as not to attack this site yourself but as seeking valid argument to justify the existence of this site and its actions.

The question you raise seems to me to beg a number of others;---

Why did this site come into existence in the first place?

Perhaps the original founders could/should answer this, but I would suggest that it was a natural and legitimate response to the existence of 08 numbers which are more expensive to call for everyday members of the public who want to avoid being ripped off by revenue sharing techniques and numbers which carry a premium rate.

It responds to the introduction of 08 numbers which some would say, and I wouldn’t disagree, have no other purpose than to generate more revenue for the telecomms industry, but do it in a way which abuses the trust and compliant nature of the British public..     All the facilities offered are also available using geographic numbers and therefore the only reason for the existence of 08 numbers is to enable higher prices to be charged and revenue to be shared with the owners of the 08 numbers.    

There is an ethical problem with 08 numbers however, in that the revenue sharing has not been openly declared or made well known to the public generally, and there has been a history of obfuscation and misinformation about the true cost to the public of calling these numbers.   Some companies and even government departments have gone to great lengths to hide their underlying geographic numbers, the IR now HMRC for example, and to prevent the public from finding them and using them while at the same time making geo numbers available to business and professional callers.   We know that these geo numbers work perfectly well because thousands of people call thousands of alternative numbers every day, and they work perfectly without detriment to the organisations or the public.   The public use them to avoid the higher cost of the 08 numbers.    Are the public “misusing” the alternative numbers?    

Companies and government departments have been persuaded into using 08 numbers by the telecomms industry firstly claiming that “intelligent network facilities” such as call routing, forwarding, queuing, monitoring and statistics are only available with 08 numbers, which is not true, and secondly by the offer of a small slice of the revenue , the share or bribe, which allows the telecomms industry to profiteer at the expense of a deceived and gullible public.    The users of this website are still very much a small minority are not gullible and refuse to be deceived or conned.

Are the public “misusing” all the geographic alternative numbers by using them?

We are playing a game, rather than fighting a war, even though we would prefer not to be, and the rules of the game have been established for some years.   The game is “find the alternative number”.    There is no legislation which prohibits such activity, nor which says that geo numbers are secret, nor which says they cannot be used by anybody.   This site exists to help people find these numbers and play the game.    Tax avoidance is legit, tax evasion is not.    It seems avoidance of revenue sharing rip-off numbers is legit, so people who wish to avoid the “tax” can legitimately do so if they have the wit and the will.   We can play the game quite legitimately.

Limit reached.  To be continued in next post.

HERE! HERE! Loddon, well said.

SilentCallsVictim wrote on Aug 6^th, 2009 at 3:07pm:

Organisations that use 08 NGNs often publish +441/+442 numbers for calling from overseas because the +448 number is not callable from such locations. The highlighted statement merely points out that a number written in international format (i.e. prefixed +44) can be called nationally from within the UK.

The vast majority of organisations aren't phased by callers from the UK using the "overseas" alternative. Hence this tip is good way of obtaining an alternative to get round the main revenue sharing number.