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Newsletter Achieve

Ofcom delays 0870 price changes until at least the end of the summer 2008 due to continued disputes between service providers and the regulator.

In summary Ofcom the industry regulators want to remove the rebate that carriers and resellers generally pass a proportion of onto their customers and instead force service providers to charge the same for calling a 0870 number as they would any geographic number nationally.

Clearly for some businesses for example mail order companies and distributors this is a significant income stream that is built into their business model.

Owners of these numbers are faced with the choice of moving to the significantly more expensive (for callers) 0871 number ranges or cheaper 0845 numbers or pay for an 0870 service in a similar manner to free phone numbers.

As many readers will be aware the industry has strongly argued that the service should be able to continue in a similar manner as no discernable benefit will be gained by consumers as the cost increase will have to be passed on somewhere else.

Equally the disruption caused by these proposed changes to UK business are not immaterial as printing, electronic and possibly supplier changes will all have to be changed.

Carrier and Reseller representatives have requested that when a decision is finally made that more than 3 months is given before implementation is mandatory.

BtL’s view is that the regulator has got itself in a muddle over this issue and that many of the original proposals were unworkable. However we are sure the essence of the proposals will survive so forward planning is essential.

Newsletter June 2008