Review of the 070 personal numbering range | Ofcom

Review of the 070 personal numbering range | Ofcom

Ofcom has published a review on the 070 numbering range known as Personal Numbering Services (PNS).

In 2005 there were a large number of complaints about PNS due to abuse by number holders (mainly scams to mobile numbers). Ofcom originally wanted to migrate 070 numbers to an 06 range, but this was decided again due to confusing and that systems such as alarm systems utilised 070 numbers.

070 were put under regulatory control from PhonepayPlus (formally ICSTIS) and measures such as delayed payments to number holders has significantly reduced the number of consumer complaints.

Ofcom will support and monitor the enforcement program by PhonepayPlus (who have made 10 adjudications and fines totalling £625,000 since May 2008.

Communications providers will have to publish their 070 tariffs prominently and make them easy to understand for consumers.

PNS providers who sub-allocated numbers to other operators will have to carry out due diligence of the sub-allocation operator.

Though this is a step in the right direction, it would have been beneficial to end-users to move the number range so 07 was only used by mobile operators - but it would have been a logistical nightmare to move alarm systems and other services out of the 070 number range.