Raising Confidence in Telephone Numbers | Ofcom

Raising Confidence in Telephone Numbers | Ofcom

Ofcom introduced the 03 range (which are charged at local rate) to encourage companies to migrate from 0870 numbers. To this end, Ofcom were going to mandate the anyone using 0870 services would have to pre-announce the call rate before the call was connected to make the consumer aware of any charges. This was to have taken place in Feb 2007.

Ofcom have been made aware that some automatic emergency services (alarms etc) make use of 0870 numbers and these would be adversely affected by the pre-announcement (they would time out and therefore the call would not complete).

Ofcom are working with the affected service providers and hope to bring in the new regulations in the spring of next year.