0870 Advice outlines a number of typical business scenarios and potential solutions

Scenario 1 – Small business

A small business that promotes a limited number of 0870 numbers potentially for phone and fax contact numbers.  Inbound call volume of less than 500 calls a month and no advanced network level services.

Potential Solution:

Much will depend on how easy it is to promote a new contact number.  However, the likelihood is that any revenue generated will have been minimal and with low call volumes any future call charges should not be restrictive.

Our potential recommendation may be to keep the current 0870 numbers in place, losing existing revenue share and instead having to pay for calls received.  Disruption would be kept to a minimum and call charges should be manageable.

Scenario 2 – 0870 for Revenue Share

A business using 0870 numbers to support ‘free’ services – such as telephone banking, help lines or technical support lines.  Call volumes may well be significant and therefore loss of revenue share may be difficult to absorb.

Potential Solution:

Once again there may be difficulty in replacing and promoting new contact numbers.  However, this scenario may justify that effort to migrate to other NTS ranges that would continue to provide a revenue stream.

Our recommendation would be to look into the possibility of migrating to new 0844 or 0871 numbers.  Any decision would be based on how much revenue share is needed together with a range of other factors including whether calls are received from abroad, whether calls need to be queued, caller dynamics and how ‘memorable’ the numbers need to be.

Scenario 3 – Large Business – Revenue share and network level services

Many large businesses already use a combination of freephone (0800), local rate (0845) and national rate (0870) numbers which result in a mixture of revenue income and charges for services received.

Typically, these businesses will utilize an array of network level services ranging from simple call statistics to complex call routing plans, call queuing, IVR, call recording and disaster recovery solutions.

Often these network level services are funded by the revenue generated from 0870 calls.  With the loss of revenue share from 0870 calls and introduction of call charges, this regulatory change will have a very significant impact.

Potential Solution:
                                                               
This scenario is far too complex to define a recommended solution.  It is clear that any decision will depend on how easy it would be to introduce new numbers and how much budget is available.

The likelihood is that with an array of network level services as described above the option of reverting back to 01/02 geographic numbers is a non-starter – the impact of losing revenue share and finding budget for in-house equipment to replicate network-level services will be too great.

A more favoured solution would be to analyse the current mixture of 08XX numbers in place and look at introducing new (revenue bearing) 0844 and 0871 numbers where possible to minimize the loss of revenue share and enable businesses to continue to benefit from the network level services in place.