Ofcom decision to remove 0870 rebate revenue

The Ofcom decision regarding 0870 pricing

Over the past eight years there have been a small but regular flow of press articles complaining about the payment for calling 0870 telephone numbers that companies receive.

Web sites have even been written about the subject. However the public has shown little interest in the subject and a ground swell of dissenting opinion has never been generated.

The anomaly in the 0870 pricing structure has attracted complaints from public and consumer lobbies and resulted in an investigation by Ofcom, the independent regulator for the UK communications industries.

After considering these concerns in the summer of 2006, Ofcom announced a number of changes to how 0870 numbers will work in the future.

• Ofcom will stop call revenue sharing on 0870 numbers at some point in time between April 2007 and January 2008.

(Ofcom will remove the regulatory support for revenue sharing by removing the 0870 range from the scope of the BT NTS Call Origination Condition.)

• 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).

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