Is your provider still charging extra for 'non-mobile' numbers?

Roger1

Calling my 07937 number (Jersey Telecom via SWISS-mobile) from Toggle costs 29p per minute, compared with 5.5p from my BT landline.

The Toggle cost calculator has been down for months. They show a link to a PDF of roaming costs - http://www.togglemobile.co.uk/PDFs/uk/Roaming-UK.pdf .

Switzerland and the USA are no longer shown, so I don't know what charges to/from Switzerland and the USA apply. I even have Swiss and US local numbers. (Three may be cheaper for Like Home calls.)

Separately, using my BT landline to call my 3 UK mobile costs all of 40p per minute , but as mentioned, calling my 07937 (JT) mobile costs 5.5p per minute.

pmduk

Channel Isles numbers are always tricky, Ofcom has no control over them. All the evidence seems to suggest avoiding Toggle at the moment.

redux

One way to avoid other networks overcharging to Lyca/Toggle is port a main network number to the SIM.

I did this about 5 years ago, and around the same time I complained to Toggle about the charge to a Vectone number, but I assumed the practice had died out since then as charges converged.

On the comments above I would think 1p Mobile is more to be avoided than Toggle.

Ian011

Wortle wrote: »

Hi, My toggle number starts 074055

Annex 12 of Ofcom's March 2018 statement on MTR charges** for 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2021 lists 07405 (under LycaMobile) as having the charge control applied to the termination rate. There is therefore no excuse for a high termination rate and therefore no excuse for a high call charge and/or exclusion from inclusive allowances.

Other landline and mobile providers stopped excluding calls to LycaMobile numbers many years ago. The caller's phone provider needs to get their act together. Ofcom's aim is for there to be a single charge (per provider's tariff) for calls to all UK mobile numbers starting 071 to 075 and 077 to 079.

** See
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/112459/MCT-review-statement-annexes-115.pdf


The drop-down list under the "Personal numbers starting 070 and non-UK-mobile 07 numbers" entry found here https://www.1pmobile.com/tariff-and-charges.taf lists far too many prefixes. The 070 and 076xx (except 07624) entries are understandable; they are not mobile numbers. Mobile phone prefixes allocated in the Channel Islands and Isle of Man (including 07624) (but which have not actually been labelled as such) are also expected to be more expensive. The remainder of the listed prefixes should not be attracting additional charges. Their inclusion in this list is not justified.

They specifically mention LycaMobile: "Apart from LycaMobile numbers the other number ranges are very specific and in decline. The devices connected on them (apart from 070) are being moved to non-geographic, 03, 08 or 09 numbers." but LycaMobile numbers should not be in the list because they dropped their termination charges a number of years ago.

Ian011

Roger1 wrote: »

Calling my 07937 number (Jersey Telecom via SWISS-mobile) from Toggle costs 29p per minute, compared with 5.5p from my BT landline.

This is blatant profiteering. The termination rate for calls to UK mobile numbers is capped at 0.49p per minute. The termination rate for calls to mobile numbers allocated in the Channel Islands is, I believe, about 0.8p per minute and for calls to mobile numbers allocated in the Isle of Man is, I believe, about 1.2p or 1.5p per minute. There is no reason for calls to numbers allocated in CI and IoM to be charged at extortionate rates.

Roger1 wrote: »

Using my BT landline to call my 3 UK mobile costs all of 40p per minute, but as mentioned, calling my 07937 (JT) mobile costs 5.5p per minute.

Are you sure about that 40p per minute rate for calling Three mobiles? BT charges around 17p or 18p per minute to call UK mobile numbers (plus a connection fee of around 22p). While the termination rate for calling a mobile number allocated to Three used to be much higher than calling numbers allocated to the other main mobile networks, that came to an end at least several years ago (2012 or earlier?).

Since then, Ofcom has set a cap on termination rates that applies to all UK mobile numbers and has also continued to reduce that cap on an annual basis (usually in April). There is no reason why calls to numbers allocated to one UK mobile network should be charged at a higher rate than when calling numbers allocated to any other UK mobile network. Note that "UK" does not include CI or IoM.

pmduk

Unless the rate for all UK mobiles is 40p and JT considered an international call? Jersey, of course, being non-UK

Roger1

Thanks, Ian.

Ian011 wrote: »

Are you sure about that 40p per minute rate for calling Three mobiles?

Extract from 'Calls' in our latest BT account:

Sat 26 May 12:09 07973 (my 3UK mobile) Mobile Phone 6 seconds £0.400
Sat 26 May 12:10 07937 (my Toggle mobile) Mobile Phone 11 seconds £0.055

Other dates show same rates. I was testing my SWISS-mobile SIM in various conditions (not using BT), and at the same time wanted to compare with BT rates. This was part of that exercise.

Ian011

Roger1 wrote: »

Extract from 'Calls' in our latest BT account:
Sat 26 May 12:09 07973 (my 3UK mobile) Mobile Phone 6 seconds £0.400

That 40p charge by BT is, as said above, a 22p call connection fee plus 18p per minute, with a minimum charge of one minute. So, in comparison to calling other UK mobile nunbers, BT are not charging anything extra to call mobile numbers allocated to Three. However, the rate is extortionate.

The termination rate for calls to mobile numbers allocated in CI and IoM is higher than for calls to UK mobile numbers and yet BT's retail charges for calling UK mobile numbers are much higher than those for calling CI or IoM mobile numbers. This suggests that BT's retail charges for calling UK mobile numbers are excessively high. Indeed, all other major landline providers offer inclusive calls to UK mobile numbers in at least their unlimited anytime, or equivalent, call packages. BT is now the only major landline provider not offering this.

Roger1

Roger1 wrote: »

The Toggle cost calculator has been down for months. They show a link to a PDF of roaming costs - http://www.togglemobile.co.uk/PDFs/uk/Roaming-UK.pdf .

Switzerland and the USA are no longer shown, so I don't know what charges to/from Switzerland and the USA apply. I even have Swiss and US local numbers.

I checked with Toggle CS. Part of their response:

Please be informed that you will be charged the below.

UK to USA:
Landline - 3p/min, Mobile- 3p/min, SMS- 9P/SMS, Data- 15 p/ mb

USA to UK:
Landline: 3p/min ,Mobile: 29p/min, SMS- 6P/SMS,Data-15p/mb

U.K to Switzerland :
Making calls:28 £/min ,local calls:£3/min ,receiving calls -1 £min

Switzerland to U.K:
Making calls :28£/min ,local calls :28£/min receiving calls: 7£/min

Note: You can check these details in the latest version of Internet Explorer browser in order to avoid compatibility issues.

If correct, the UK-CH and CH-UK rates are way, way out of line. Previously, they were included in the EU/EEA list at 3p/9p per minute. The to/from US calls look the same as before.

Changing browser from Chrome to IE, I get the rate calculator. Confusingly, it shows UK-CH at 3p/9p and CH-UK at 3p/29p when using Toggle local numbers - the basis of my use and comparison - and other rates expressed in pence, rather than pounds, when using non-Toggle local numbers.

So a real person somewhere expects me to pay £29 pounds a minute to call Switzerland from the UK or the UK from Switzerland. :rotfl: Or doesn't understand the difference between pence and pounds? What's the point of using plonkers in CS? The online calculator seems to work, but probably only in IE.

Three 3-2-1 will be my default for my next Swiss and UK trips, except for local calls.