The 0800 Number Company don't tie their customers in to long term contracts

Leading freephone number provider The 0800 Number Company has published a quite interesting blog post on its website about why it doesn't tie customers in to long term contracts. The main thrust of the argument is that the circumstances of businesses ordering 0800 numbers can change dramatically in a short period of time, especially in such volatile economic conditions. It is therefore unfair to saddle businesses with rental and charges for 0800 numbers for months if they find they don't need them. They also argue that if the service is good enough then people won't leave, and you shouldn't lock people in - all good arguments and the sort of thing we expect from 0800 number providers!

Childline reaches 25 year milestone

We asked a couple of weeks ago about leading 0800 numbers, and of course one of the most famous and recognisable 0800 numbers of them all is the Childline number - 0800 1111. Last week they celebrated their 25th anniversary. They do outstanding work, and we salute the work they do.

Interesting article on 0800 freephone number calls from mobiles

Here at the 0800 Numbers buyers guide blog, we try to keep our eyes open for interesting articles about freephone numbers for you. We found a quite interesting one this week on moneymarket.com, which you can read for yourself by clicking here. It states that people spend around £1.9million per year calling non-geographical numbers (NGNs) including freephone 0800 numbers from mobile phones. The article goes on to talk about various alternatives to calling freephone 0800 numbers and other NGNs from mobiles, such as the wide range of sites out there that give you the actual number that the 0800 number is routed to. It is not, of course, the 0800 number providers that make money on calls to freephone numbers from mobile phones but the mobile phone providers themselves. Of course, if mobile providers continue to charge excessive prices then they are going to lose out because people will seek these alternatives, so they need to start considering their options.

The most popular 0800 number?

I keep wondering, what are the most popular, the most used, the most advertised 0800 numbers? Surely the Crimestoppers number has to be up there, as every time I put the phrase 0800 numbers into a Google search, it brings up something on the first page to do with Crimestoppers. Maybe that is just the most newsworthy. Anyone else got any other thoughts?

Blog expands to include international freephone numbers

Up until now, this blog has mainly focused on 0800 freephone numbers in the UK, but of course freephone numbers are used worldwide, not just in the UK. In the UK of course, 0800 is the freephone number, but a wide range of different numbers are used across the globe. Therefore, in the future, whilst still considering UK freephone numbers, we will also be looking at international toll free forwarding numbers.

So, this includes 1 800, 1 855, 1 866 and 1 877 numbers in the USA, 0805 numbers in France, and countries which also have 0800 numbers, which include Germany and New Zealand.

More and more telecoms companies are now offering toll free numbers internationally, which is why we are expanding the material covered in this blog to take account of that. Look out for this in future blogposts!

A brief history of UK freephone numbers

If like me you're a bit of a history buff then you might be interested to learn a little bit about the history of UK 0800 numbers.

The Post Office, which had controlled the telephone system in the UK since 1912, introduced freephone services to subscribers in 1959 and to business services in 1960.

Linkline 0800 and 0345 numbers were first introduced in 1985, and became freefone and lo-call afterwards. In 2000, BT's 0345 numbers and Mercury's 0645 numbers were merged to create the present day 0845 numbers.

False hope

For a brief moment, we thought the first move had been made in the price of calling 0800 numbers from mobile phones coming down when Vodafone UK announced that they were dropping the costs of calls to 0800 numbers from their phones. That is until 3rd January 2012 when they're putting them up again. The long wait continues!