There are no such rules to govern charges on today’s so-called “discounted” BT tariffs. These are essentially BT’s response to the competition and were made compulsory in 2004 when it scrapped its principle pre-competition residential non-discounted tariff.

To help you understand what is happening, I will first explain what happens when a telephone call is made.

No longer is it a simple case of there being one provider that all telephone users subscribe to whereby calls start (or “originate”) and end (or “terminate”) on its network. I refer to within each nation; Eircom in Ireland and likewise BT in the UK.

In today’s telecommunications industry there are competing providers who must all interconnect with one another in order that subscribers of one provider may place calls to those of another provider.

Where a call originates and terminates different networks (i.e. with different network telephone providers), the terminating provider levies a “termination charge” on the originating provider. So if you call from an Eircom landline to Vodafone mobile, the latter imposes a charge on the former. The same is true for landline to landline and mobile to mobile.

I will explain what has happened in the UK with non-geographical numbers, as I suspect that there will be similarities in Irish telecommunications.

BT was the state owned provider, like Eircom was in Ireland. We have 0845 and 0870 numbers whose charges were aligned to local rate and national rate, respectively, with BT. Back in the day, the vast majority of consumers made their calls with BT, so 0845 was genuinely cheaper than a national geographical call.

The amount BT retains when it originates calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers is regulated to a relatively low level. The majority of the retail call charges are passed to the telephone provider of the respective number. Hence the termination charges are high (relative to geographical or landline calls) for these numbers.

When everyone made calls with BT, all was fine. But due to the far higher profit margins on the geographical calls, increased competion meant that their retail cost fell. This cannot happen (in the same way) with 0845 and 0870 numbers because there are very little profit margins because they are regulated (with BT) as such!

Mark makes a point about BT including 0845 and 0870 numbers in inclusive packages. This shouldn’t be misunderstood as the solution to the problem. The “wholesale” cost of termination charges to BT (and other providers) is still far higher than with geographical numbers. So consumers are paying for it regardless in higher line rental and other costs.

Any advanced features of 0845 and 0870 non-geographical numbers are therefore being funded by callers. This is irrespective of any peverse discounts by retailers, brought about by the aforementioned regulatory condition on BT.

In the UK we now have 03 prefixed numbers. These are non-geographical, just like 0845/0870 but must be included in packages and at no more than the price of geographical calls, a rule which applies to all landline and mobile providers. The terminating charges for these numbers is also the same as geographical calls.

So it costs telephone companies that retail calls the same for geographical numbers as 03 numbers.

You are a multinational company. You have a presence in Dublin that services the whole of Ireland. You publish a Dublin locall number. Head office then decides to move Tech Support calls to Belfast or even the UK.

Potential Issues:
1) Those living outside of Dublin may not want to call a company located in Dublin.

2) Tech Support activities are moved Belfast, do you publish a new Tech Support number for Belfast? What marketing costs will that involve in informing current users.

3) If moving sales related activities to the UK do you make customers dial an international number?

etc etc.

Would it not make more sence to publish a 1850/1890 number that can be re-directed within miutes to a new number in any location that will only cost the customer a shared fixed cost (1850 numbers) or shared timed cost (1890 numbers).

Does that not sound more like professionalism? But lets be honest, there are also cost implications that the company needs to consider so sharing the cost with the customer is not completely out of the question.

So it business or is the phone carriers?

The issue here is not any fault of businesses. The 1850/1890/1800 numbers give a business a countrywide presence.
For example, if you are a building company that does work all over Ireland, using a local number (eg a Dublin 01 number) could make a potential customer in Galway think that you only serve the Dublin area.

The businesses may also have to pay the full whack of the cost on the above numbers. If you call a company on a mobile, they have to pay anywhere from 35c to 60c a minute. Imagine how that adds up over the cost of a year!!!

The culprits here are the mobile phone providers (02, vodafone, meteor, 3). They should include these numbers in the minutes.

To reiterate, it’s not the businesses to blame – they are losing money on these numbers. The phone companies are the ones to complain to.

This does make very interesting reading and is some ways I agree with you, but in others I don’t. I work in the freephone industry & have issues with the “Scam” tarnish that is put on the industry as a whole for these numbers.

I fully agree that some of the Telecoms operators are (in my view) over charging for dialling these numbers. But this is an issue for that individual Telecom Company & must be taken up with them. After all you can buy a bacon sandwich from a man in a van for €2 or go to a posh hotel and buy it for €10… so would you class that as a “Scam”?

Also one point that you need to take in to account…. More and more companies are turning to network based services to help them meet regulatory requirements as they can piggy back these onto the 18** or 0818 numbers. By dialling the land line number, you are effectively avoiding the solution that has been put in place to help protect you!

For instance Call Recording. To put a recording unit in for a 30 seat call centre you are looking between €35,000 and €60,000 – which in today’s climate would mean 4, possibly 5 members of the call centre staff being made redundant to pay for it….
(oh & saynoto1890 have been told about this, but still fail to advise readers…)
Where as a network based solution would be charged on a pay as you go type arrangement with the company, thus making it a lot easier to swallow.

And finally just some food for thought…. BT in the UK has been pressured into including 0870 / 0845 into there free minutes….

http://www.saynoto1890.com