EE's call charges to MVNO

Boohoo

Hello.

My brother is in the last 3 weeks of his O2 min-term contract and is looking to get a Samsung S5 with any provider.
He told me about 1 he found on EE's website for £21.99 so I had a look and when I checked the charges it mentioned a charge for MVNO mobiles. I tried to look deeper in [EMAIL="T@C's"]T@C's[/EMAIL] but it said calls to MVNO 07 numbers will be charged at I think 40p per min.
Our dad is with Delight mobile and 2 of my brothers pals are with Sainsbury's and he calls them a lot.
Has anybody else noticed this and is there a way of finding out for certain which numbers are chargeable please.

Silk

They should be listed on the price plan, if I remember it used to be the foreign ones such as Lyca, they weren't included but then they allowed it later etc

Ian011

The main mobile networks have had their termination rates for incoming calls capped by Ofcom in recent years. This is the charge the terminating network makes the originating network pay them for accepting and handling the incoming call. These rates have fallen from a maximum of just over 4p per minute in April 2010 to a maximum of 0.68p per minute by April 2015. As the rates have fallen, the number of inclusive minutes has risen dramatically.

The rate cap previously applied only to calls terminating on the main mobile networks. Smaller operators were told to 'charge fair and reasonable termination rates' for incoming calls. Not all of them followed that advice. Some smaller UK mobile networks and UK mobile numbers being used for interactive, automated and dial through services continued to have termination fees as high as 15p per minute. This meant that calls to those networks were both expensive and non-inclusive.

When the annual reduction in the cap for mobile termination rates was put in place this year (2015), Ofcom extended it to cover all UK mainland registered mobile number ranges starting 071-075 and 077-079. The cap does NOT cover number ranges registered in Jersey, Guernsey or Isle of Man, nor does it cover numbers starting 070 or 076. The latter ranges are not mobile numbers.

There is now no reason for calls to certain UK mainland mobile numbers to have different charges. They should all be treated the same. The reason that some Lyca mobile numbers were previously non-inclusive was due to their high termination rate, not that they are a foreign company. The high termination fees earned by Lyca on incoming calls helped them to keep down the price of outgoing calls for their customers. Their number ranges are now covered by the rate cap.

Termination rates charged by networks in CI and IoM can be 1.5p per minute or more, hence calls to these numbers remain non-inclusive for the time being. Ofcom has no control over these rates.


These are the numbers which were non-inclusive on many networks:

074060, 074061, 074062, 074063, 074064, 074065, 074066, 074067, 074068, 074069, 074171, 074172, 074176, 074177, 074179, 074181, 074182, 074185, 074186, 074188, 074390, 074391, 074409, 074410, 074411, 074412, 074414, 074415, 074417, 074418, 074419, 074515, 074516, 074517, 074572, 074574, 074577, 074578, 074579, 074580, 074581, 074582, 074583, 074584, 074588, 074653, 074655, 075200, 075201, 075203, 075204, 075205, 075207, 075208, 075209, 075370, 075373, 075375, 075376, 075377, 075378, 075379, 075590, 075591, 075592, 075593, 075595, 075597, 075598, 075599, 075710, 075718, 075890, 075891, 075892, 075893, 075898, 075899, 077000, 077001, 077442, 077443, 077444, 077445, 077446, 077447, 077448, 077449, 077530, 077552, 077553, 077554, 077555, 078220, 078221, 078222, 078224, 078225, 078226, 078227, 078229, 078644, 078722, 078727, 078730, 078744, 078745, 078922, 078925, 078930, 078931, 078933, 078938, 078939, 079110, 079112, 079118, 079245, 079780, 079781, 079782, 079783, 079784, 079785, 079786, 079787, 079789.

Since 1 May 2015 these should have been treated as normal mobile numbers.


For reference, the number ranges used in CI and IoM are these:

Landline
01481, 01534, 01624,
Mobile
074184,
074520, 074521, 074522, 074523, 074524, 074525, 074526,
074576,
075090, 075091, 075092, 075093, 075094, 075095, 075096, 075097,
07524,
07624,
077003, 077007, 077008,
077810, 077811, 077812, 077813, 077814, 077815, 077816, 077817, 077818, 077819,
077977, 077978, 077979,
078297, 078298, 078299,
078391, 078392, 078397, 078398,
079111, 079117,
079240, 079241, 079242, 079243, 079244, 079246, 079247, 079248, 079249,
079370, 079371, 079372, 079373, 079374, 079375, 079376, 079377, 079378, 079379.

The list of landline prefixes is easy enough to remember, but not the mobile prefixes.



See also
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5255293

d123

EE have (or had) a much short list of non-inclusive 07 numbers.

Calls to non-inclusive 07 non-standard mobile services are not included in allowances and will be Charged at the standard mobile rate for your price plan.

MVNO/Non-Standard Services

Chargeable Outside of Allowances

074065

074585

075595

078221


Content correct 30.04.14 EE81011086_0414

http://ee.co.uk/content/dam/ee-help/e-gain.s3.amazonaws.com/external/content/Orange/Price-plans-and-costs/07%20ranges%20OOB%20300414.pdf?WT.mc_id=ON_MEC_A_AffWin_Skimbit&WT.tsrc=Affiliate

Kernel_Sanders

I've never come across the idea that calls to an MVNO could cost more. What a ridiculous state of affairs that was; any number can be ported to a MVNO and so the caller would have no idea that a premium would be payable.
Before I start giving out my new Delight number to people, can anyone confirm that calls or texts to it won't cost any more than to a Tmobile SIM?

Boohoo

I've never come across the idea that calls to an MVNO could cost more. What a ridiculous state of affairs that was; any number can be ported to a MVNO and so the caller would have no idea that a premium would be payable.
Before I start giving out my new Delight number to people, can anyone confirm that calls or texts to it won't cost any more than to a Tmobile SIM?

I have had trouble trying to log in to MSE so I couldn't post any replies.
My dad's mobile was with Vodafone for 3 years and then he ported over to icard for about 2 years and last year he went with Delight mobile.
His mobile starts with 07901 but he doesn't know what his Delight mobile number was before he ported over.
I don't know if other networks do this but I have never came across this apart from Lyca mobile.

dealer_wins

Those lists of numbers, and some are included in your call allowance, some will cost 40p a minute, just show what a joke ofcom are.

Do they expect us consumers to memorise every one of those?

Ian011

Some of the smaller UK networks kept the cost of outgoing calls low by charging high termination rates for incoming calls (up to 15p per minute in some cases). Other networks could not offer calls to these numbers as inclusive simply because a high user would cause them to pay out far more than the caller paid for the inclusive package.

Some of those high termination numbers were used not by mobile networks but instead by international dial-through providers. The high termination fee funded the onwards international leg of the call. They offered a way to make cheaper international calls than the mobile networks offered their own customers.

Back in the early days of mobile phones it didn't matter that some mobile numbers were used for these other services. All 07 numbers had high termination rates, initially 40p per minute or more. As those rates came down this enabled cross-network inclusive calls to be offered. As the rates fell further, the allowances massively increased, but this also exposed the high termination services and led to bill shock for those that called these numbers.

The good news is that when Ofcom dropped the Mobile Termination Rate to 0.68p per minute on 1 May 2015, as part of the annual reduction since 2010, this time the provisions were extended to cover all UK providers. As such there is no longer any basis for networks to charge extra for these numbers.

The numbers used in CI and IoM remain outside of Ofcom's control as they have their own government and their own regulator.

Ofcom will be reviewing 055, 056, 070 and 076, perhaps next year. Expect change! They have already announced the closure of 0500 in June 2017.