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Ofcom wants free mobile calls to be free
UK TELECOMS WATCHDOG Ofcom is proposing that mobile phone call charges be altered in order to simplify users' lives.
The regulator has launched a consultation on mobile phone call charges that has a focus on numbers beginning with 03, 08, 09 and 118, digits that are usually associated with businesses, organisations and directory enquiry services.
Confusion arises, said Ofcom, from the fact that these numbers need to become standardised and simplified, which makes us wonder why they are different in the first place. Anyway, the really important part of the consultation is the fact that Ofcom wants 0800 numbers to be free to ring from mobile phones, just like they are from landlines.
Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards said, "There is clear evidence of widespread uncertainty and confusion about the cost of calling these numbers. Consumers need to have far more transparency about the price they are going to pay for calls so that they can make more informed choices and so competition can work more effectively."
Ofcom's idea of clarity might not be everyone's cup of tea, so we'll try to detail its suggestions as simply as possible. The regulator wants to keep all 01, 02 and 03 numbers as geographical identifiers, 07 as mobile numbers, 0800 as free calls, 0843/4 and 5 and 0871/2 and 3 numbers as low cost business numbers and 090/ 091/098 as premium rate, higher cost wallet gougers.
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The paper tiger that is Ofcom is always a joker because it is an officialdom of sorts. These pension clocking dimwits are always closing the barn door after the horse has bolted - including those frequent moments when they are actually standing next-to and holding the barn doors quivering and debating whether the question is their pension-rights or their moral rights. This is what stupidity, excused as “Err, what if we were to .... do the right thing …”, is always doing, wondering whether benevolence is to be pure within their deisre or whether the desire for purity is the real thing. Tell you what boys, XMas is a comin’ and he’s [holding] the real thingy - yes, your excuse for another holiday - spent counting your pension rights and how much you are worth then. When all are being cheated left, right and even centre, this paper tiger merely stands by roars but when the victim is almost a mere carcass, the joer tiger starts meowing about, “Hey, there’s almost no flesh left, we’s gottas do’s sump’fings”. What a joker - in fact, they are the royal court jester, no less, you know, the hypocrite lackey of the establishment who were trained from infancy to do sump’fing if only to make it looked like they are actually part of benevolence and not a genetic of The Bookie. The fact that wickedness exists is not the point but the inability of those who were at least partially sighted not being able to witness the joker coming, going about and gone is the point. Being made a dimwit by Dimwit. The ability to sense a roar from a mere meow.
Give us the price during the call, the total so far and the cost per second/minute.
Simple. Threaten the mobile cartels with that and they will soon make 0800 numbers free.
I would think that the smart thing to do if this is implemented would be to add a feature to the phone where it tells you(going by the new rules) what you're dealing with with the number you dial. The 5-10 different rules might be hard to remember, but it should be a piece of cake for the phone itself to remember the information.
...if these numbers were at least covered by standard calling plans. Especially "national rate" 0845 and the like which were introduced to make it cheaper than calling long distance - some companies are at last catching on and providing "geographical" numbers again. And so it goes.
Years ago Orange used to have free calls to freephone 0800 numbers. They also used to charge for calls by the second instead of rounding up to the next minute. I guess the temptation to fleece their customers was just too great when they saw everyone else doing it.