BT to introduce free pre-call announcements on 070 numbers

Sunil Sood

Customers making calls on the BT network are to be protected against
unwittingly incurring high charges on personal numbers - which start
with 070 and can be confused with mobile numbers.

>From Saturday (1 September), anyone who dials one of the 070 personal
numbers that charges more than 20p a minute will hear a free pre-call
announcement from BT.

It will advise them that it is a personal number and the maximum
charges that they may incur. They can then choose whether to allow the
call to connect.

People use personal numbers - which carry a premium rate - to route
calls to almost any phone, including mobiles. But the regulator wants
to clamp down on scams where callers can be charged thousands of
pounds.

BT has put the announcements on its network following a ruling from
Ofcom which wants to increase consumer protection from services which
abuse personal numbers.

"Calls to personal numbers can cost up to 51p a minute," said Sean
Hartley, BT number translations services and direct conveyance product
manager.

"If you call an 070 number thinking it's a mobile, you may be in for a
nasty shock when you receive your phone bill. The pre-call
announcement warns you of the potential cost up front, and allows you
to make an informed choice as to whether or not you wish to make that
call."

Regards
Sunil

Joseph Hill

On 31 Aug, 00:22, Sunil Sood <.uk> wrote:
> Customers making calls on the BT network are to be protected against
> unwittingly incurring high charges on personal numbers - which start
> with 070 and can be confused with mobile numbers.

Will they offer an option for those of us who know full well what
we're calling, to be able to just connect, without delay?

MB

The message <1188516819.583010.7450@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.c om>
from Joseph Hill <> contains these words:

> On 31 Aug, 00:22, Sunil Sood <.uk> wrote:
> > Customers making calls on the BT network are to be protected against
> > unwittingly incurring high charges on personal numbers - which start
> > with 070 and can be confused with mobile numbers.

> Will they offer an option for those of us who know full well what
> we're calling, to be able to just connect, without delay?

It sounds rather as if they are admitting that they cannot trust the
operators of these premium services to warn adequately.



MB

Paul Cupis

Joseph Hill wrote:
> On 31 Aug, 00:22, Sunil Sood <.uk> wrote:
>> Customers making calls on the BT network are to be protected against
>> unwittingly incurring high charges on personal numbers - which start
>> with 070 and can be confused with mobile numbers.
>
> Will they offer an option for those of us who know full well what
> we're calling, to be able to just connect, without delay?

I don't think so, no.

Paul Cupis

MB wrote:
> The message <1188516819.583010.7450@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.c om>
> from Joseph Hill <> contains these words:
>
>> On 31 Aug, 00:22, Sunil Sood <.uk> wrote:
>>> Customers making calls on the BT network are to be protected against
>>> unwittingly incurring high charges on personal numbers - which start
>>> with 070 and can be confused with mobile numbers.
>
>> Will they offer an option for those of us who know full well what
>> we're calling, to be able to just connect, without delay?
>
> It sounds rather as if they are admitting that they cannot trust the
> operators of these premium services to warn adequately.

They are not premium rate services as that term is defined in the UK
numbering plan. There is no requirement for callers to be advised of the
cost of calling a number by the person giving them that number except
for Premium Rate Numbers (starting 09 or 118).

Joseph Hill

On 31 Aug, 01:30, MB <M...@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> The message <1188516819.583010.7...@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.c om>
> from Joseph Hill <> contains these words:
>
> > On 31 Aug, 00:22, Sunil Sood <.uk> wrote:
> > > Customers making calls on the BT network are to be protected against
> > > unwittingly incurring high charges on personal numbers - which start
> > > with 070 and can be confused with mobile numbers.
> > Will they offer an option for those of us who know full well what
> > we're calling, to be able to just connect, without delay?
>
> It sounds rather as if they are admitting that they cannot trust the
> operators of these premium services to warn adequately.

Oh I don't disagree.

It would just be nice to override the warnings.

Annoyingly, T-Mobile tell me *every time* I dial an 0800 number, that
the call will be charged at their standard rate. I know this, accept
this, and my memory is good enough to not need to be told this five
times a day. (A lot of suppliers insist on using 0800 numbers on their
order lines, annoyingly).

I know moaning about ten seconds sounds petty... but it really is
unnecessarily tedious.

Ivor Jones

"Paul Cupis" <.uk> wrote in message
news:fb7o1g$28qr$.net
: : MB wrote:
: : : The message
: : : <1188516819.583010.7450@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.c om>
: : : from Joseph Hill <> contains these
: : : words:
: : :
: : : : On 31 Aug, 00:22, Sunil Sood
: : : : <.uk> wrote:
: : : : : Customers making calls on the BT network are to
: : : : : be protected against unwittingly incurring high
: : : : : charges on personal numbers - which start with
: : : : : 070 and can be confused with mobile numbers.
: : :
: : : : Will they offer an option for those of us who know
: : : : full well what we're calling, to be able to just
: : : : connect, without delay?
: : :
: : : It sounds rather as if they are admitting that they
: : : cannot trust the operators of these premium services
: : : to warn adequately.
: :
: : They are not premium rate services as that term is
: : defined in the UK numbering plan. There is no
: : requirement for callers to be advised of the cost of
: : calling a number by the person giving them that number
: : except for Premium Rate Numbers (starting 09 or 118).

Yawn.. Here we go again. I don't give a fig what the UK numbering plan or
anybody else says. If they're charged more than a call to a normal phone
number then they're premium rate, end of story.

No debates or arguments so don't bother replying unless you want it
dragged out *again* for days, because I will if I have to.

Ivor

Paul Cupis

Ivor Jones wrote:
> I don't give a fig what the UK numbering plan
> or anybody else says.
[snip]
> No debates or arguments so don't bother replying unless you want it
> dragged out *again* for days, because I will if I have to.

Yep, there's Ivor. Accept his definitions or he'll kill the SNR and
therefore the usefulness of the forum.

Jono

Ivor Jones pretended :

> I don't give a fig what the UK numbering plan or
> anybody else says.

Erm, I'm sure you do.....especially when it comes to the format of
London numbers..

Jono

Joseph Hill brought next idea :

>
> Annoyingly, T-Mobile tell me *every time* I dial an 0800 number, that
> the call will be charged at their standard rate. I know this, accept
> this, and my memory is good enough to not need to be told this five
> times a day. (A lot of suppliers insist on using 0800 numbers on their
> order lines, annoyingly).
>
> I know moaning about ten seconds sounds petty... but it really is
> unnecessarily tedious.

Absolutely.

It used to be possible to either deop the leading zero or something
else, I'm sure.......

At least it should be possible to do something like that - I'm on Voda
& was advised by their CS to "try dropping the zero" to avoid the
message. Not worky.