Beware of signing up to any deal with inclusive calls to 08 numbers

Ian011

Beware of signing up to any deal with inclusive calls to 08 numbers.

Calls to 080 numbers (but not to 0500 numbers) will become free from all mobile phones on 1 July 2015. If you already pay a separate fee for a package of discounted calls to 080 (i.e. 0800 and 0808) numbers, consider cancelling it as 1 July 2015 approaches.

Revenue sharing was suspended on 0870 numbers on 1 August 2009. This immediately enabled inclusive deals to include calls to 0870 numbers. Landline providers included these calls in their standard packages. Mobile providers did not. Some mobile providers have sold a separate package add-on to cover these calls. As soon as revenue sharing ceased on these numbers most users of 0870 numbers simply migrated to 0844 or 0871 numbers meaning that very few calls are made to 0870 numbers. Revenue sharing returns to 0870 numbers on 1 July 2015 with a declared Service Charge of up to 13p per minute depending on the exact number called, matching the call price for 0871 and 0872 numbers. It is quite likely that landline and mobile providers will no longer be able to offer inclusive calls to these numbers.

Over the last 18 months or so, following various changes in regulation, most retailers, traders and passenger transport companies, almost all government departments and their agencies, the vast majority of other public services including most local authorities, most banks and the vast majority of the NHS have changed their expensive 084 numbers over to replacement 03 numbers. As a result, you should no longer need inclusive calls to 0845 numbers. Under the new call charge system coming into force on 1 July 2015, the current 2p per minute Enhanced Termination Charge will be replaced by a declared Service Charge of up to 7p per minute depending on the exact number called, matching the call price for 0843 and 0844 numbers. It is quite likely that landline and mobile providers will no longer be able to offer inclusive calls to these numbers.

If you have a deal with inclusive calls to 01 and 02 numbers it will always cover calls to 03 numbers too. This Ofcom rule has been in place since 2007. With increasing usage of 03 numbers and declining usage of 084 and 087 numbers, paying for a package of inclusive calls to 084 and 087 numbers is beginning to look like a waste of money.



See also
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5219756
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5220589
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5222050
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5223890

dealer_wins

For a so called "regulator", they couldnt sort out a pizza up in a brewery.

So many simple things they could do to make it easy to understand what is what, yet they make it very complicated for consumers to understand.

EG:

Why are some free to call numbers 0800 and others 0500 etc

Why do premium rate numbers start 070 to confuse them with regular mobile 07 numbers.

Why are some "regular" mobile numbers charged for by some providers.

etc etc etc

Ian011

dealer_wins wrote: »

For a so called "regulator", they couldn't sort out a pizza up in a brewery.

So many simple things they could do to make it easy to understand what is what, yet they make it very complicated for consumers to understand.

Much change is currently in the works to address all of these issues, and some other related problems.

Why are some free to call numbers 0800 and others 0500 etc

Back in the days when there was only one supplier, BT, numbers starting 0800 plus six digits were assigned as freephone numbers.

When a second operator, Cable and Wireless, started up, they were assigned numbers starting 0500 plus six digits.

In the mid to late 1990s multiple operators started up and unused blocks of 0800 numbers started to be assigned plus seven digits. The 0500 range was closed to new allocations around 1996 or so. Within a few years, additional numbers starting 0808 plus seven digits started to come into use.

On 12 December 2013, Ofcom announced that calls to 080 numbers (but not to 0500 numbers) will become free from all mobile phones on 26 June 2015. That date has since been amended to 1 July 2015.

On 3 June 2014 Ofcom announced the 0500 range will be closed on 3 June 2017. Users can migrate their 0500 number to the matching 0808 5 number. The last six digits of the number remain the same. The new number is one digit longer than the old number.

Thereafter 080 will be the only freephone range. Other numbers such as 105, 111, 112/999, 116XXX will also be free.

Why do premium rate numbers start 070 to confuse them with regular mobile 07 numbers.

In the early days of mobile phones, termination rates were 40p per minute or more and call costs were 60p per minute or more. The revenue generated by incoming calls from landlines was used to build the networks. The various mobile prefixes were scattered throughout the 03 to 09 ranges.

In the late 1990s, new mobile telephone numbers were issued in the 077XX, 078XX and 079XX ranges, all plus six digits. This was one digit longer than existing mobile numbers. This was the start of the organisation of mobile, non-geographic and premium numbers into the 07, 08 and 09 ranges.

In 2001 all remaining old mobile numbers were moved into the new 07 ranges, gaining an extra digit in the process. Old non-geographic numbers were moved into the 0845 and 0870 ranges. Premium numbers were moved into the 090 ranges.

The 070 range was allocated to personal numbering in the late 1990s. These also had very high termination rates. The revenue from incoming calls paid for the service.

Contract deals included only calls to the same network. Cross-network calls were very expensive as were calls to personal numbers.

As termination rates fell, the cross-network call prices fell and eventually cross network calls also became inclusive. This left 070 as an anomaly out in the open, non-inclusive and with high call prices. After various scams, Ofcom banned revenue sharing on 070 numbers in 2009 and most of the scams went away.

As termination rates fell further, the number of inclusive mobile minutes increased dramatically. Numbers with high termination rates remain non-inclusive.

Once the forthcoming major changes to 080, 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers are out of way, Ofcom will review the 055, 056, 070 and 076 ranges. Given that 0500 is to be closed, I expect they will be too.

Why are some "regular" mobile numbers charged for by some providers.

Back in the days when mobile termination rates were very high, some of the mobile ranges were adopted by instant-access international dial-through services and other value-added interactive and automated services. In the case of international dial-through providers, the high termination fees funded the onwards international leg of the call. Likewise the high termination fees funded the various other "non-mobile" services using mobile numbers.

These numbers were not a problem back then. They were just another expensive 07 number in a sea of expensive 07 numbers. You had to pay for cross-network calls, even on a contract, so it wasn't an issue to pay a similar rate to a dial through provider - especially when it was saving a fortune on international calls compared to whatever extortionate rate the mobile operators charged.

As mobile termination rates fell, deals with inclusive calls began to include calls to other mobile networks. This left the various value-added services as expensive and non-inclusive.

By 2009 the mobile termination rate was down to about 4p per minute. Ofcom intervened in the market to push it down to 0.84p per minute by 2014. This reduction applied only to the main mobile networks. The other mobile networks were told to charge 'fair and reasonable rates'. Those that did not were simply excluded from inclusive allowances on the main networks. Dial-through providers and other value-added services, some with termination fees of up to 15p per minute, were also excluded.

In February 2015, Ofcom published the price caps to be imposed on mobile termination rates for the next three years. Crucially, these rates will apply to all UK mobile numbers in the 071 to 075 and 077 to 079 ranges, including those used by dial-through and other value-added service providers. From 1 May 2015 the rate will be 0.68p per minute. In order to continue running their services they will need to migrate to an 087 or 09 number where they can properly declare their Service Charge.

The Ofcom MTR price caps do not apply to mobile numbers allocated in Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man. Although they use numbers allocated to the UK, they have their own governments and their own regulator. These offshore numbers remain non-inclusive because their termination rates are still above 1p per minute. Some value-added services with much higher rates also remain within these offshore mobile ranges.

Soon after 1 May 2015, the list of non-inclusive numbers will be cut in size, but not completely eliminated. If those offshore termination rates eventually achieve parity with UK rates, they may well become inclusive calls and there will be no exceptions in the mobile ranges.

Another result of the lowering of the MTR is that it brings the possibility of inclusive calls to mobile numbers from landlines. The MTR cap starting April 2017 will be lower than the current termination rate for calls to 03 numbers.

Kernel_Sanders

Wow, that's an excellently detailed post, although I think most people won't know what a 'mobile termination rate' is. I think that in the quoted sentence, it should be shorter instead of longer.

Ian011 wrote: »

In the late 1990s, new mobile telephone numbers were issued in the 077, 078 and 079 ranges, all plus seven digits. This was one digit longer than existing mobile numbers.

Ian011

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

Wow, that's an excellently detailed post, although I think most people won't know what a 'mobile termination rate' is. I think that in the quoted sentence, it should be shorter instead of longer.

Nearly all of the changes, and all of the anomalies, are driven by changes, or exceptions to the norm, in termination rates.

Definitely longer. The new numbers are like 07722 123456 whereas the old numbers were like 0402 123456, but you have exposed a typo there - now fixed.