0870 or ‘nationally’ rated business telephone numbers are used extensively across a broad range of businesses, throughout the U.K.
0870 numbers might typically be used for company’s wishing to gain a perception that they are in fact much bigger than they appear by utilising a national number, overlaid on a fixed local STD code number.

Advantages

• Free Set Up – National rate calls are currently charged at 6.73 p / minute from a BT land line; 3.3p off-peak and 1.7p at weekends (excluding VAT)
• Disaster Recovery – By choosing an 0870 number, organisations can instantly re-route their inbound call traffic to an alternative destination, including a mobile or overseas destination, if the BT ISDN30 / 2e/ or analogue line fails.
• Portability – Numbers can be altered in terms of their destination as many times as you like, so if you are a rapidly expanding company and your likely to move in the near future, then its possible to save substantial costs for re-printing.
• Call Routing - We provide tools (inbound call options) for managing large volumes of calls. The caller is less likely to encounter an engaged tone and have to redial.
• Home Worker (Small Office) – If you work from home then an 0870 masks your location and in turn provides
• Revenue Sharing - . Revenue Sharing arrangements are available when volumes of inbound calls are sufficient to warrant this option. For a discussion over revenue sharing options please contact your nominated account manager on 0844 844 4 555.

Ofcom has advised that a statement on the regulation supporting 0870 number revenue share payments should be made by Christmas this year. Ofcom regulation supporting 0870 revenue share payments are expected to change at some stage in 2009 and it is expected that Ofcom will provide a three month notification period before the changes come into effect. The likely outcome of this will be the end to 0870 revenue share payments and caller charges being capped at the applicable National Rate of the callers’ network provider at the same date. The caller charges currently vary significantly depending on the network they are calling from, with charges possibly being higher than the published National rates. This Ofcom driven change is designed to remove consumer concern about the cost of calling 0870 numbers

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