The 0800 number has changed over the years and sometimes it’s confusing to understand the differences across a host of changes and different numbers, so here are highlights to what an 0800 number is for the caller and the owner.
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Calling 0800 Numbers
An 0800 number is a non-geographic phone number that promotes “free to call” from mobile and landline phones for callers in the UK.
Times have changed for 0800
Previously, calling UK 0800 numbers was only free from landline phones. Mobile phone callers used to get charged for the call by their provider, effectively making 0800 a ‘partially’ free number; you couldn’t really class that as a ‘freephone’ number, could you?
However, that has changed and you can call an 0800 number for free from a mobile and landline, making it a truly free phone number to call. Ofcom relaunched this number in July 2015 as part of it’s “UK Calling Initiative”, making all call rates clearer for the consumer.
But how have they made this change become free for the caller? What’s happened to the call cost?
Owning an 0800 Number
When it comes to mobile phone callers, the owner of the 0800 number is now the ‘paying party’ of the original 0800 mobile ‘fee’, instead of the caller.. This is known as a surcharge and it’s there to make the call truly free for the 0800 caller.
As an owner or potential owner of an 0800 number the surcharge might seem like a sore point and while, for some, the monthly bill might have increased, it’s also makes 0800 a better tool for businesses.
Previously, businesses would sometimes look at having separate numbers for landline and mobile callers, where they could accommodate the different callers, due to the rates the callers could be charged. So you might have look at an 0800 number for landline users and an 0333 number for mobile users, to keep the rates cheaper. But then people aren’t as familiar with 0333 numbers as they are 0800, so that causes it’s own issues.
Actually having the previous 0800 mobile charge swallowed by the owning business in the form of a surcharge allows for a straight forward number promotion for the business owner and less confusion for their callers.
More Information
We specialise in phone numbers and there is more information on 0800 numbers. We also sell a host of these numbers for businesses interested in a non-geographic phone number solution.
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