Personal Numbers Announcements

21 January 2008
OFCOM asks for the Pre-Call Announcement to be removed

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/numbering03/070precall/

We note that the article is undated, and it seems to imply in the words of Arnie "I'll be back!"

Three has still got the announcement there. 

14 January 2008
Major carrier announcement test

We are informed (but not by OFCOM) that OFCOM has instructed all originating carriers to remove the message. There appears to be no reference on the OFCOM site.

Following tests carried out on Wes16Jan08:

17 December 2007
OFCOM announces carriers can remove the "PreCall announcement"

In our orginal submission to OFCOM, we made the point that the messages were pretty unhelpful, and so long as to be sabotaging the calls. 

In the case of emergencies telephones are an important tools, and we have many users of our service who might well be used for emergency assistance.

• We could not see the date of the announcement on the announcement document itself

• BT seemed to have dropped the PreCall annoucement prior to this release.

• We would hope that consumer friendly operators, would drop the long silly announcements, put a short and accurate (how much will this call cost you) message, and put their rates on their website (and train their customer "care" teams to be able to inform their customers). 

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/numbering03/070precall/

14 December 2007
Major carrier announcement test

As of Friday December 14, it would appear that the warning messages have been removed from some providers' calls, including BT. We conducted a series of test calls to one of our 070 personal numbers and can report the following information:

Background

As of 01 September 07, following new requirements by OFCOM aimed at bringing transparency to the Personal Numbering Market, BT have begun delaying incoming calls to some personal numbers with a 20 second announcement to warn callers that they may be charged up to 50ppm to call a personal number.  This message is played on all incoming calls to personal numbers charged at 20ppm or more.  Unfortunately at no time does the announcement actually state what the call is really costing (which we believe was OFCOMs intention).

What this means

At present any calls to dmClub K-rate numbers (070059 & 07050) or PN2 numbers (07077) will begin with this 20 second announcement played to the caller before the call is connected.  We feel this is unreasonable and therefore have taken the following actions:

1 Re-rate our numbers

We are attempting to re-rate our personal numbers so that they will cost the caller less than 20ppm to call.  This would result int he announcement no longer being called.  This will take a few months for BT to process however and may have implications on which destinations can be forwarded for free.  We will keep customers notified on this page as we have more information.

2 Free 0871 number

We are prepared to offer customers affected by this problem a free 0871 number for the next 6 months - that's no signup fee or rental until 01 March 2008.  This will mean you still receive a free number which you can forward to UK landlines for free.  There will however be a charge to forward calls to UK mobile phones - we're sorry, but this is unavoidable.  Please note - as these numbers do normally have a charge associated with them, we do ask that you only apply for one if you do intend to use it.

During the 6 month period, our Personal numbers should be re-rated, and you will be able to resume that service as before.  Of course, if you wish to keep the 0871 number, you may do so at a rental of £18.89 per annum.

How can we help you?

If you need assistance with this, please feel free to call dmClub Support on +44-20-7060-2000 or email .

Is there anything that can be done about this?

We are looking at submitting a  formal complaint to OFCOM regarding this problem.  If you wish to contact OFCOM yourself to make a complaint, please feel free to do so.  Alternatively if you would simply like us to include your details as a customer who has been harmed by this change, email with your name, number and a brief statement of how this change has affected you.