UK-wide 03 telephone numbers for businesses
UK-wide 03 telephone numbers have been launched by Ofcom as a consumer friendly way to replace the old style and expensive non-geographical national and local rate 08 numbers. The new style non-geographical 03 phone numbers will cost exactly the same to call as a call to a local or national geographical (01 or 02) number.
You do not need any new telephone lines or equipment to use 03 phone numbers from 03tele.com, as we provide low cost, sophisticated, call routing and statistic packages with all 03 numbers.
Great News for Callers
The availability of new 03 phone numbers is great news for callers because Ofcom are forcing phone companies (land-line and mobile) to charge the same rate for 01, 02 and 03 phone calls and to allow calls to 03 numbers to be used and deducted from bundled, pre-paid or discounted call plan minutes at the same rate as 01 and 02 calls.
Great News for Businesses
Low cost 03 numbers are also great news for businesses because they can now use non-geographical phone numbers without alienating their customers by forcing them to use the old expensive 087 and 084 numbers.
Great News for Marketing Budgets
Non-geographincal UK-wide 03 phone numbers are not expensive for businesses to deploy or use and 03tele.com can provide you with a fantastic selection of tools and reports that will enable you to track how effective your marketing can be.
More UK calls made from Mobiles
Ofcom's PSB Review* reveals that Mobile telephony (including an estimate for messaging) accounted for 40% of the total time spent using telecoms services, compared to 25% in 2002.
However, much of this growth has come about as a result of an increase in the overall number of voice call minutes (from 217 in 2002 to 247 in 2007) rather than because of substitution with fixed voice, which still accounted for 148 billion minutes last year, down only 10% from 165 minutes in 2002.
Public avoid Revene Sharing 08 numbers
Research by Which?* shows that many people actively avoid calling Revenue Sharing and Premium Rate phone numbers.
Revenue sharing phone numbers - which include 0844, 0845, 0870 and 0871 - let organisations that use them retain shared revenue from their customers' calls.
They are almost always more expensive to call (from both landlines and mobile phones) than numbers starting 01, 02 or 03.
Many companies use them for customer service and support phone lines, and even some government departments still use them.
However, members of the public surveyed said that:
almost half avoid calling 0870 and 0871 phone numbers;
nearly a quater shun 0844 and 0845 phone numbers;
and about three fiths avoid premium rate 09 phone numbers.
Single National Point of Contact
You have probably seen them around but what are 03 numbers and how much do they cost?
Ofcom introduced UK-wide 03 numbers as an alternative to chargeable 08 numbers, such as 0870 and 0845.
These new numbers allow organisations to have a single national point of contact without consumers having to pay extra to call them.
Calls to 03 numbers cost no more than a national rate call to an 01 or 02 number and must count towards any inclusive minutes in the same way as 01 and 02 calls.
These rules apply to calls from any type of line including mobile, BT, other fixed line or payphone
Revenue sharing – where the dialled party can receive a share of what the consumer pays to make a call – is also not allowed on calls to 03 numbers.