Some of you might have seen the report in The Independent a couple of weeks ago entitled “Number may be up for costly 0800 and 084 calls” on Saturday 25th February.Under the title was the summary saying: “Ofcom, the communications regulator, is taking forward proposals to make calls to them free from mobiles and landlines.” This was an interesting statement as it seemed to imply that currently calls to 0800 and 084 numbers from both mobiles and landlines are not free. This of course isn’t true, as calls to 0800 numbers from a landline are free, that is the point of them, they are freephone numbers. Therefore, in essence the article is saying that OFCOM is striving for 0800 numbers to be free from mobiles as well as landlines, so that they are freephone numbers from both.
Of course, it is the mobile phone companies that charge for you to call an 0800 number, and is nothing to do with the 0800 number providers. The article also mentions that the Department of Health is writing to GP surgeries to remind them not to use 084 numbers, but that does not mean that the number is up for them! At the end of the day, we have heard this about 0800 numbers being free from mobiles many times before, and although we would very much welcome it, we will believe it when we see it!
