Press Releases
Pre-fix telephone number Rip-off
Stephen Hughes, Labour MEP for the North East has the backing of Commissioner Vivian Reding to call upon Ofcom to do something about the pricing policy for calls to non-geographic numbers in the North East of England. Many people will have been forced to use phone numbers with a 0844 or 0845 numbers to get health advice or to make an appointment with a doctor only to find that these calls are charged at up to 5p per minute on top of what their telephone provider has already charged them. Other examples of organisations using these pre-fix numbers are: Police Forces (Durham Constabulary for incident reporting-- number is 08456060365) and even Council Departments. Stephen Hughes and now the Commission believe Ofwat should do more.
The Commissioner has confirmed that pricing policy for calls to non-geographic numbers must comply with Directive 2002/22/EC (the Universal Service Directive) and in response to a letter to the European Commission on the matter, Commissioner Reding said, "Ofcom in the United Kingdom has primary responsibility to consider the extent to which the relevant requirements of price transparency are being met by the telecommunications service providers and to take corrective action...".
Speaking today, Stephen Hughes said, :--
"Too many public and private institutions are using these premium rate phone lines when providing vital information required by the public. Many times people don't even know they are being charged these rates on top of what it normally costs them to make a regular call. European law does not ban the use of the numbers, but it does say that people should know what such calls cost them.
The fact that people don't know the costs, means that the directive is not being complied with. For this reason, I have written to Ofcom to ask that they take action to make these charges more transparent so people can make an informed choice as to whether they make a call or not.
I think it is scandalous that the police are using a 0845 number for people to report crimes.
On the Commissioner's advice, I have written to Ed Richards, Chief Executive of Ofcom to ask whether he believes the transparency requirements of Directive 2002/22/EC are being met. Depending on his reply I may be asking the European Commission to launch legal action relating to non-compliance with EC law."
ENDS
The following are the rates which currently exist:
- 0845 - charged at up to 4p per minute to the caller and will still allow some revenue share.
- 0844 - charged at up to 5p per minute to the caller and will still allow some revenue share.
- 0871 - These numbers will still be charged at up to 10p per minute to the caller.
The following are some of the bodies in the North East using these numbers:--
North Tyneside Council, North East Learning Skills Council, Arts Council, Making a Complaint about the NHS, Help the Aged and Nexus Traveline
Contact:
Cyndi Beaver <cyndi.b@ntlworld.com >
Telephone:077641 98400