Regulator to put the phone down on costly premium numbers

TELECOMS regulator ComReg is hanging up on a range of highcost premium phone numbers.

The numbers with codes such as 1850 and 1890 can charge callers up to 31c a minute when many people wrongly believe they are free or low-cost.

Calls to these numbers will be no more expensive than ringing a normal landline from December next year and from the beginning of 2022 will be scrapped altogether, ComReg said.

‘From December 1, 2019, a call to an 1850, 1890, 0818 or 076 will cost no more than the cost of calling a landline number. This means that if landline calls are included in your bundle of call minutes then these calls will also be in bundle.

‘No separate charge will apply for any of these calls, unless you have used up your bundle of call minutes.’

From 2022, the five non-geographic numbers will be reduced to two. 1850, 1890 and 076 numbers will be scrapped but the 1800 Freephone and 0818 range will remain.

‘This three-year period is to allow organisations that use non-geographic numbers time to prepare,’ ComReg explained.

The move was welcomed by the Consumers’ Association of Ireland, which said it has been contacted by from telephone users with ‘bill shock’, where someone thought a call was free but then discovered they had run up a massive bill.

Chief of the Consumers’ Association, Dermott Jewell, said: ‘For too long consumers had no idea of what the cost entailed, for most of the time they were of the opinion that they were free when they were anything but.

‘So it’s great to see a regulator being as active as ComReg.’

The numbers were also confusing for companies that used them as contact numbers.

The businesses often thought the numbers would send business their way but it often had the opposite effect as people, being were wary of the costs, were reluctant to call them.

A ComReg spokesperson added: ‘Many consumers have also experienced “bill-shock” at some time because retail tariffs for some nongeographic numbers calls can be high, particularly when made from a mobile phone.’

‘Consumers had no idea of the cost’