The problem isn't profitability. The problem is that there is a lot of misleading information on 0870 numbers. They are much more expensive than ordinary national numbers *today* and people don't know that.
"John Rumm" wrote
But they don't allow that with the XDA, do they?
They are more expensive, I agree, but much depends on the tariff you use, where national geographic calls can cost from 3p to 7.91p on a weekday at peak time, and up to 1.5p at the weekend. I see many assume that such calls are made in peak time, where most of the call centres I've used have much longer hours than 0800-1800, so IMO the comparisons are perhaps unjust. Peter M.
If anything i've heard it called 'eurorate' because most of europe can be connected to an 0871 number for no more than the cost of the call. This definition isn't really offical though either and 'Fixed National Rate or
10ppm' have all been used. I belive 'special services up to 10ppm has been used.'.Sam
I pay 2p/min or 1.7p/min (no connect fee, 1min minimum charge) for my daytime national geographic calls, depending on how tedious an access code I'm prepared to dial (Tiscali & UKcall) and nothing for my off-peak & weekend geographic calls (OneTel). I therefore try to avoid organisations using 0870 numbers.
I note that one organisation (ING Direct bank) have recently changed from 0870 to 0845, so perhaps there is hope - doesn't affect me much, since I deal with them entirely online.
I also note that Sainbury's Telecom offer about 30% off BT's standard rates for 0845 on weekdays (day & eve). Not a lot at weekends though.
Tim wrote: [...]
I'm having trouble working out why a low user who is trying to save costs would be happy to spend lots of money on a fancy handset they're unlikely to make any sort of serious use of.
"Peter Corlett" wrote
Who said anything about "trying to save costs"? We're just talking about someone, albeit low (outgoing) user, who may
*receive* a lot of calls, and who wants to have a nice handset. Not always possible with pre-pay...
I hought part of the "argument" concerned calling 0870. Sure, I avoid paying 8p a minute by making calls off-peak when it's convenient, but overall i have few quibbles with
0870. I thought one complaint was with paying higher costs from mobile phones for 0870 (eg 10p/minute) than for geo nos but my answer to that is "use a bl**dy landline then!" :-)BeanSmart website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.