Important changes to non-geographic number charges.

If your organisation uses a ‘non-geographic’ service number for people to contact you – that’s one beginning 08, 09 or 118 – you need to be aware of major changes to how these numbers are charged.

Ofcom state that, “The unbundled tariff will ensure consumers can know, for the first time, how much of their money is paid to their phone company and how much is passed to others, such as the organisation or service being called. It will require that, instead of paying a single charge to their phone company, they will pay two separate charges:

• the Access Charge: which will be paid to the phone company which originates the call; and
• the Service Charge: which is paid to the phone company which terminates the call and may be shared with the service provider, i.e. the company providing a service using the number (a bank for example), to cover or contribute towards their costs.”

If you have a Soho66 non-geographic number (0845 or other chargeable 08 numbers), we will have recently emailed you to advise you of the updated charges, coming into affect from July 1st onwards.

You must ensure that your customers are made aware of these updated charges when calling your number, for example by stating, where you advertise your number, the clear breakdown of costs involved.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding this, you can visit the Ofcom website which explains the upcoming changes: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/policy/non-geo-call-services/

If you are yet to receive an email concerning your non-geographic Soho66 number, please don't hesitate to contact us on 03333 443 443, and one of our Technical Support Team will be happy to talk you through things.