With the launch of the long awaited 03 Geographic Number Range which was set to replace the widely debated 0870 range in some industries it’s going to interesting over the next few months / years to see what the uptake of this prefix will be.

With no revenue sharing on the range many telcos and re-sellers have had no incentive to promote the 03 range and so it’s currently unlikely that the range will become a wide spread landline range, unless telcos being charging companies 1p or 2p per minute to receive calls on this range it’s likely that for the time being the range will simply just be used for Government Offices and businesses who do not wish to generate revenue from their phone lines.

Many have opted for the 0844 and 0871 range in replacement to the soon to be out dated 0870 national rate phone numbers which is expected to take the majoirtiy of the market who currently use the 0870.

Anyone can get an 03 number however unless you’re allocated it by BT, Virgin Media or another network operator who installs the line on site the only way get one is to have it routed to your current 01 or 02 number which landline to landline routing can cost at least 1.2p per minute and so for the time being at least it’s likely to be a niche number range.

It seems certain that on or around November 1st 2008 we’ll see the end of the 0870 number for good. Why? Encase you were not aware a fierce debate over 0870 national rate numbers has been fueling over many years over whether they should be used by companies and organisations has been concluded.

On one side is the companies who but the argument forward that the revenue they receive from customers/suppliers etc calling their number is used to help off-set staff costs and continue the quality of service that the organastion provides and on the other is a certain percentage of the public whom claim companies are “ripping off” callers for no other reason then to make additional profit.

In my opinion it is a companies choice which 08xx number (0800, 0845, 0870, 0871) they choose for their business and so if a customer has such an objection to something as the telephone number then they’re would be dozens of other organisations to choose from or methods of getting in contact with the company e.g. requesting a call back, emailing them, sending in a letter, calling in on the weekend when calls are just 1.5p a mintue.

Some mistakenly class them as “premium rate numbers” which they are NOT, premium phone numbers start with 090 where as the 0870 is a National Rate Number.

However the decision has been long made that the 0870 is on it’s way out and that revenue sharing on this prefix will cease. In addition to this many companies who continue to use this prefix after this cut off date may be suprised to hear that THEY will soon to be charged to receive calls on their 0870 number! Something that I beleive a number of telcos are keeping rather quiete about as the reverse billing for calls to COMPANIES rather than charging callers will simply replace their revenue stream with a brand new one!

Have an 0870? and dont want to start PAYING for people to call you? Additional prefixes such as 0844, 0871, 0800 are unaffected by these changes and each have their own strengths and weaknesses, to find out which is best for you call: 0871 918 0604 today.