A couple of weeks ago I posted about the government using 0870 numbers to generate money. If nothing else, it’s a sneaky little tactic.
At the time, I mentioned that these sorts of premium rate numbers are frowned upon by the government’s own telecoms regulator, Ofcom.
Ofcom has now pledged to investigate these numbers – but not until 2008 at the earliest!
According to Reuters:
Under the 2008 changes, Ofcom will require mobile and fixed-line providers to charge the same or less for 0870 calls as they do for national-rate calls to geographic numbers, starting 01 or 02. If providers want to charge more for 0870 calls, they will have to make a free-to-caller price pre-announcement at the start of the call. This change is likely to significantly reduce the price of many calls to 0870 numbers. It will also mean that 0870 calls will generally be included in call packages.
So it’s probably worth keeping an eye on SayNoTo0870.com for a bit longer.