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Title: Dial through providers using mobile numbers Post by: Ian012 on May 24, 2015, 02:34:45 PM After intervening in the market in 2009, Ofcom has been forcing a steady reduction in Mobile Termination Rates. Over the last five years these have been reduced from over 4p per minute to just 0.84p per minute by April 2014. These reductions have applied only to the major mobile networks with other providers told to charge 'fair and reasonable rates'. Some have charged up to 15p per minute and used the numbers for services other than mobile phones. One such use is for international call through services with the high termination rate funding the onwards international leg of the call.
The latest reductions forced by Ofcom take the rate down to 0.68p per minute from 1 May 2015 but, crucially, the provisions have been extended to cover all UK registered mobile numbers starting 071 to 075 and 077 to 079. Further reductions are planned for April 2016 and April 2017. Dial-through providers now have very limited funds to cover the onwards international leg of the call. Many services have closed. Those that remain mostly seem to operate by either sending a separate bill for calls made or requiring a top up to be made by calling an 09 number or a mobile shortcode with a one-off premium call charge or texting a mobile shortcode with a one-off premium charge in advance. A small number of services have much higher termination rates but operate using numbers allocated in Jersey, Guernsey or Isle of Man and therefore do not count towards inclusive allowances on landlines nor on mobiles. Transparency of call pricing is gained by moving to the appropriate 084 or 087 number range where the applicable Service Charge can be declared. A number of services appear to have done this, but may suffer from reduced usage due to consumers becoming fully aware of the Access Charge component now also being separately declared. Title: Re: Dial through providers using mobile numbers Post by: davegr on May 24, 2015, 03:27:32 PM The latest reductions forced by Ofcom take the rate down to 0.68p per minute from 1 May 2015 but, crucially, the provisions have been extended to cover all UK registered mobile numbers starting 071 to 075 and 077 to 079. Further reductions are planned for April 2016 and April 2017. I'm very curious about this as I still have suppliers offering up to 6p per minute revenue on mobile numbers. Do you have a link to something relevant to this change? Title: Re: Dial through providers using mobile numbers Post by: Ian012 on May 24, 2015, 04:33:12 PM This is the page that links to relevant documents:
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/mobile-call-termination-14/statement/ Check out the first PDF in the list and especially the various tables listing providers and prefixes (tables 5 and 7) and the remedies (table 8). Revenue sharing ranges are now 084, 087, 090, 091, 098 and 118. |