Police - non-emergency numbers
Discussion
Just downloaded a list of non-emergency phone numbers for each police force in England. Most use standard phone numbers of the form 01xxx. A few (Gloucestershire are one) use cheaper 0845 numbers. However, only Avon & Somerset use an expensive 0870 number! As the idea of these numbers is to encourage callers with a non-urgent problem/enquiry to not call the free 999 number, using an expensive 0870 number (to raise money?) seems counter-productive.
Philbes said:
7db said:
0870 is hardly expensive.
0870 can be up to 8p/minute on a weekday which is expensive compared with free and 0845 (local) up to less than 4p/minute
Exactly my point. It costs nearly nothing, and usually th biggest cost in the phone call is the salary of the person at the far end who answers it. There's a lot of bleating on saynoto0870 about companies which use these non-geographic numbers, but in reality it's pretty cheap.
I'm thinking of upgrading to an 09x number where we can get away from this namby-pamby 8p per min and get onto something serious like £1.50 a minute. That starts to cover costs.
7db said:
Philbes said:
7db said:
0870 is hardly expensive.
0870 can be up to 8p/minute on a weekday which is expensive compared with free and 0845 (local) up to less than 4p/minute
Exactly my point. It costs nearly nothing, and usually th biggest cost in the phone call is the salary of the person at the far end who answers it. There's a lot of bleating on saynoto0870 about companies which use these non-geographic numbers, but in reality it's pretty cheap.
I'm thinking of upgrading to an 09x number where we can get away from this namby-pamby 8p per min and get onto something serious like £1.50 a minute. That starts to cover costs.
I might do that for my home number, I'd make a fortune form all the cold callers!!
Any business with 0870 numbers will lose their revenue share as of 1st February 2008.
OFCOM have dictated that 0870 will be charged (to the caller) at the same discounted rate as a geographical national rate call as dictated by your telephone supplier the exceptions being the mobile operators.
The same principal will most likely impact on 0845 (local rate) in about two years time.
All that will happen though is that business relying on the 0870 revenue share will migrate their services to 0871 (variable calling from 6p to 10p per minute) or 0844 (variable calling rate of 1p to 5p per minute).
Government departments currently using 0870 will potentially migrate to 0300, a nice little number range they have reserved for themselves. All it will do though is confuse people even more though.
101 is in trial status at the moment with further role out "delayed" whilst results are "analysed". You can still dial it though if you are out side of one of the trial areas but it's pretty poor as the call steering (geographically based) is hit and miss.
Initial figures indicate that number of calls to 999 services has actually increased during the trial of 101, however one of the reasons cited is the proliferation of mobile use, previously maybe there would have been only a couple callers reporting an incident but now there may be 20+.
101 has proved succesful in weeding out some of the "cat up a tree" calls or "how long do you have to boil an egg?" But it needs a buy in from all agencies that operate shared services (councils etc) and not just the emergency services.
OFCOM have dictated that 0870 will be charged (to the caller) at the same discounted rate as a geographical national rate call as dictated by your telephone supplier the exceptions being the mobile operators.
The same principal will most likely impact on 0845 (local rate) in about two years time.
All that will happen though is that business relying on the 0870 revenue share will migrate their services to 0871 (variable calling from 6p to 10p per minute) or 0844 (variable calling rate of 1p to 5p per minute).
Government departments currently using 0870 will potentially migrate to 0300, a nice little number range they have reserved for themselves. All it will do though is confuse people even more though.
101 is in trial status at the moment with further role out "delayed" whilst results are "analysed". You can still dial it though if you are out side of one of the trial areas but it's pretty poor as the call steering (geographically based) is hit and miss.
Initial figures indicate that number of calls to 999 services has actually increased during the trial of 101, however one of the reasons cited is the proliferation of mobile use, previously maybe there would have been only a couple callers reporting an incident but now there may be 20+.
101 has proved succesful in weeding out some of the "cat up a tree" calls or "how long do you have to boil an egg?" But it needs a buy in from all agencies that operate shared services (councils etc) and not just the emergency services.
0845 doesn't normally pay out to the company fielding the calls -- 0870 is a little bit negative and 0800 a little bit positive. We have both and they nearly cancel out.
0871 will be a natural migration, unless we're on 09 by then.
The same will happen as before -- phone service providers will charge what they think they can get away with.
999 calls increase with mobile usage as dialling 999 will unlock your phone, allowing your pocket to dial emergency services.
0871 will be a natural migration, unless we're on 09 by then.
The same will happen as before -- phone service providers will charge what they think they can get away with.
999 calls increase with mobile usage as dialling 999 will unlock your phone, allowing your pocket to dial emergency services.
[quote=7db]0845 doesn't normally pay out to the company fielding the calls -- 0870 is a little bit negative and 0800 a little bit positive. We have both and they nearly cancel out.
quote]
I'd guess you must be a "low" volume user, high street names would expect to pay circa 1.8p for 0800, receive a revenue income of .5p for 0845 and approx 4p for 0870 all at pence per minute rates for the duration of the call.
(I'm not being rude by using the term low volume but typically that would be sub 10 million minutes per annum, roughly speaking 10,000 calls a day)
quote]
I'd guess you must be a "low" volume user, high street names would expect to pay circa 1.8p for 0800, receive a revenue income of .5p for 0845 and approx 4p for 0870 all at pence per minute rates for the duration of the call.
(I'm not being rude by using the term low volume but typically that would be sub 10 million minutes per annum, roughly speaking 10,000 calls a day)
combemarshal said:
7db said:
Philbes said:
7db said:
0870 is hardly expensive.
0870 can be up to 8p/minute on a weekday which is expensive compared with free and 0845 (local) up to less than 4p/minute
Exactly my point. It costs nearly nothing, and usually th biggest cost in the phone call is the salary of the person at the far end who answers it. There's a lot of bleating on saynoto0870 about companies which use these non-geographic numbers, but in reality it's pretty cheap.
I'm thinking of upgrading to an 09x number where we can get away from this namby-pamby 8p per min and get onto something serious like £1.50 a minute. That starts to cover costs.
I might do that for my home number, I'd make a fortune form all the cold callers!!
Cute idea - everyone else phones my mobile anyway. When I get a cold call I usually ask them to wait while I get pen and paper and "forget" about them. Could make a fortune.
zumbruk said:
7db said:
0870 is hardly expensive.
Given that we have already paid for the service, *any* charge is unacceptable.
And when you cant get through because someone has locked thenselves out of the house and want police to break in??
Our 0845 number has taken the load off our 9's system as the 0845 number gets a lower priority to the incomming 9's.
zumbruk said:
7db said:
0870 is hardly expensive.
Given that we have already paid for the service, *any* charge is unacceptable.
Perhaps you should be required to attend the station in person to access that service that you've paid for.
I think thruppence is great value for being able to do it remotely.
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