Isle of Man Phone Charges

redux

Ian011 wrote: »

Their termination rates were sometimes 15p per minute or more, other times just a few pence per minute, but all substantially above Ofcom's cap on the Mobile Termination Rate (0.84p per minute from 1 April 2014) that has been in place for some years. The MTR cap was introduced in April 2010 and applied only to the termination rates charged by the main mobile networks. Others were told to charge "fair and reasonable rates".

Ofcom has since removed the basis for this pricing anomaly. When the MTR cap was reduced to 0.68p per minute earlier this year, it was also extended to cover all providers using numbers starting 071-075 and 077-079. The new reduced and extended MTR cap took effect on 1 May 2015. Only mobile numbers in Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man are exempt.

From 1 May 2015, the "non-mobile" category should have disappeared from price lists, leaving just prices for:
- standard UK mobile numbers starting 071-075 and 077-079 (excluding Jersey, Guernsey, Isle of Man)

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to have happened yet.

Some mobile networks are still publishing lists of prefixes they consider excluded from their minute bundles.

I don't know what they are actually charging, as I haven't done lots of tests.

However I'm currently in dispute with one provider, where the issue is complicated further by them publishing two lists, and a number I called which was charged nearly 10 times their standard price appears only on one very long list, which is not the one linked to as special mobile numbers.

Ian011

The 'non-mobile' numbers category should have disappeared on, or very soon after, 1 May 2015, but some landline and mobile providers are still charging various numbers at extortionate rates. This and various other pricing anomalies shows that many of these networks haven't really got a clue what they are doing. For example, a number of networks still haven't complied with the new pricing regime for 08, 09 and 118 numbers that was introduced by Ofcom on 1 July 2015.

Ofcom does not have the power to directly set retail call prices. Ofcom does have the power to set limits on termination rates which should heavily influence retail call prices. Ofcom appears to be getting tougher on various consumer protection issues and rip-offs. If your provider still has a list of 'non-mobile' price exemptions, consider making a complaint to Ofcom.