Harmonised European numbers for services of social value

Issued December 12, 2008

Introduction

BT is familiar with the Commission’s view that culminated in its decision of 15 February 2007 that there should be arrangements in Member States so that callers may access certain services of a social value within those States behind short numbers (previously referred to by the Commission as Harmonised European Short Codes), and that calls to such numbers should generally not be chargeable. BT refers to these digit strings in this document as numbers rather than codes because in the UK a code is generally understood to be a digit string forming the first part of a number which for some customers would not be dialled to connect a call successfully.

BT actively participated in this earlier debate and as such, BT recognises that Ofcom is required to make arrangements to facilitate such services emerging and being implemented in the UK. BT acknowledges that the underlying Commission decision is not the subject of this consultation.

BT is devoting the majority of this response to the consideration of: how 116 numbers should be allocated and the subsequent proposed charging arrangements for and implementation of 116 numbers.

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BT would welcome any comments on the contents of this document. Comments should be addressed to Howard Erdunast by e-mail to howard.erdunast@bt.com.