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077 phone number charging?
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Don't forget that the number displayed on your phone when they call isn't necessarily the phone number they are ringing from. Think it's called spoofing. Had spoof calls from normal mobile numbers before. My OH has a mobile starting 077 and has had it for years, so it definitely isn't a chargeable prefix. (0779....)0
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Bigphil1474 said:Don't forget that the number displayed on your phone when they call isn't necessarily the phone number they are ringing from. Think it's called spoofing. Had spoof calls from normal mobile numbers before. My OH has a mobile starting 077 and has had it for years, so it definitely isn't a chargeable prefix. (0779....)
For decades call centres have had their systems set such that if an agent calls you it displays the generic number of the department not their personal telephone number (if they had one, some do). This isnt considered spoofing as it's showing a number that is theirs and appropriate for the call.
O2 have a list of non-mobile 07 prefixes https://www.o2.co.uk/help/account/billing-and-usage/special-numbers-070 -
In the 07 range, Ofcom allocates 070 to personal numbering, 071 to 075 to mobile phones, 076 (except 07624) to pagers, and 077 to 079 to mobile phones.
When a call is made to a landline or mobile number allocated to a telecoms provider that is different to the provider being used to make the call, the caller's telecoms provider has to pay a termination fee, or rate, to that other provider. Inclusive call plan allowances and pricing is set such that, on average, the caller's provider does not lose money by having to pay out more than the caller paid for the package.
Ofcom has set a maximum rate for mobile call termination for many years. In the beginning it covered only calls made to numbers allocated to the main mobile providers. Around a decade ago, the cap was extended to cover calls made to all UK mobile providers. The rate is around 0.5p per minute. Where a provider is setting rates above that cap, calls to their numbers will be excluded from monthly allowances.
Ofcom recently confirmed that UK mobile numbers can be used for revenue sharing, so mobile number ranges where that is suspected to take place can also be excluded from allowances.
Ofcom also sets a termination rate cap for calls to landline numbers allocated to UK providers. It's way less than 1p per hour.
While landline and mobile numbers allocated to providers based in CI and IoM are a part of the UK telephone numbering plan, providers in these offshore locations are not regulated by Ofcom. The service providers in those places usually set their call termination rate at a rate that is much higher than UK mainland providers are allowed to charge. This means calls to these numbers are not usually included in monthly call allowances.
While the landline prefixes for CI and IoM are relatively easy to remember (01481, 01534, 01624), the list of mobile prefixes allocated to providers in CI and IoM is very much longer. Oftel or Ofcom could have avoided these complications by setting 0760x, 0761x and 0762x aside for mobile numbers in those locations. Indeed, the original 04624 IoM mobile allocation changed to 07624 around September 1999 and is still valid today, along with a large number of other prefixes in the 071 to 075 and 077 to 079 mobile number ranges.
Your landline or mobile provider is obligated to publish the details of what is and is not included in allowances, but many have incomplete, inaccurate or contradictory information on their websites. Others make the information difficult to read by not placing it in numerical order.1
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