Plans to halt revenue sharing on 0870 numbers from February 2008 have been put on ice temporarily due to concerns over the impact of pre-call announcements on lifeline services.
Popular with many small businesses as they provide a non-geographic phone number, the 0870 service has been under review by telecommunications watchdog, OFCOM for over two years now. Earlier this year it was announced that the charging regime was to change.
But the switch over has now been delayed after certain 0870 services, many of which protect human life and property, were found to fail when the option to use pre-call announcements was in place. The problem was identified with alarm and security services that use automatic dialling systems and are often used to communicate directly with the police and fire stations.
With several hundred thousand of such services in use in the UK, it was deemed that the potential for endangering life and security was too great. Tests found that these systems eventually “timed out” if a recognised phone signal was not detected. If the 0870 changes had proceeded as planned next February the use of pre-announcements could have caused safety and emergency services being unaware of potentially catastrophic and life-threatening situations.
For now, the status quo is to remain until a satisfactory solution can be found. However, the final public consultation will proceed as intended but now includes examination of possible solutions for lifeline and critical services. An announcement on the outcome of the final consultation is expected in spring 2008.
Meantime, OFCOM has reaffirmed its commitment to increasing consumer protection for calls to 0870 numbers. Their plan is for 0870 numbers to be priced at a similar level to calls to geographic (01xx and 02xx) telephone numbers and be included in call packages.
Communications providers wishing to depart from the general rules were to be compelled to arrange for free pre-call announcements stating how much the call would cost.
The greatest blow for business is that OFCOM wants to end the revenue sharing arrangement on 0870 numbers whereby businesses split their customers’ call costs with the service provider.
