Re: Consequences

Paul Martin <pm@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Peter Corlett wrote:
[...]
*Almost* all mobile phones start 07. As a counterexample, there are
mobile phones with number (0121) 276 xxxx.
How were calls to those Orange numbers charged?

Like any other call to Birmingham. Apart from a very few Interesting
exceptions[0], calls are charged based on the number dialled and not what
network or technology is used to handle the call.

If I remember rightly, if you called a geographic number from Orange, the
recipient had to pay for the privilege of them forwarding on the call to
their mobile, and you were charged the normal charge for that geographic
code.

This would be how I would expect it to be charged.

[...]
Ah, yes, the 070 "Personal Numbering" range. I once heard someone on a
local radio station call an 0700 number a freephone number. It's anything
but.

Hey, what's 50p/min between friends?

075 is reserved for mobiles
076 is pagers
07[789] is mobiles

FWIW, 075 is now in use. The first time somebody gave me such a number, I
asked them to double-check it. It turned out to be diallable even from a
tinpot telco so I guess they've been around for a while now.

Of course, nowadays with number portability, you can no longer tell which
mobile network a number is on, and hence what rate (there are at least
four mobile rates) you'll be charged to call it.

(This is a handwave but good enough for our purposes.)

Because non-mobile telcos can't tell where a number currently is, they just
to send the call to the original network and are charged for calls to that
network. If it's been ported, said network gets to reroute the call as
necessary.

Mobile networks know whether a number is on their network, and if so, they
can short-circuit calls that would otherwise go off-net and be tromboned and
if the stars are in alignment, the customer may even get charged a lower
rate. Otherwise, it's just booted off to the number operator as before and
the customer shafted in the usual manner.

Number portability is probably the main reason for cross-net minutes being
in contracts, because otherwise somebody might actually start investigating
this rather dubious situation. (My phone's with a tinpot telco so unless I
want to call their other customer, everything is cross-net anyway and I get
to pay 35p/min.)


[0] The two that come to mind are calls from mobile phones to some ported
mobile numbers and calls from BT landlines to a secret list of
geographic numbers that BT don't publish despite the Price List telling
customers to refer to said list.

--
Improvable Tripe: http://tripe.cabal.org.uk/
.

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