070 numbers are legitimate numbers and are often used as a ‘follow me’ service where calls are diverted from one number to another. The person being called can keep their own number private and remain contactable wherever they go. Whilst this might sound great to a small businesses or sole traders who might use them to make it easy to manage calls. 070 numbers can actually have a negative impact on your business.
070 numbers are not included in call bundles or inclusive minutes of the network provider. On average a caller may pay up to 42.55 p in addition to VAT per minute. Therefore, if you plan to set up a personal number for your business it is important that you put into consideration the effect of increased call costs for your customers on your business. Customers who get billed large amounts of money for calling you, are unlikely to call you again.
How do 070 numbers work?
When someone calls an 070 number, their communications provider pays a wholesale termination charge to the service provider. This is for the call to reach the recipient. The caller is then charged a retail price by their service provider, this could range from 45p to £1.50 per-minute.
New rules to combat high call costs and scams
Due to all the negativity surrounding 070 numbers, Ofcom has decided to cap the wholesale cost of connecting 070 calls. This will help protect callers from fraud and unexpected call costs.
The new 070 wholesale price cap will match the cap for calls to mobile numbers. This is currently around 0.5 pence per minute. This will remove the incentive for scams by significantly cutting the money that can be made from using these numbers. This should also clear the way for phone companies to include 070 numbers in free minute allowances.
Whilst this might sound like good news for your business, it’s worth noting that by introducing VoIP and Cloud into your business, it can offer all the same benefits as an 070 number can, but without any of the worries or the bad press that 070 numbers bring. In fact, there is no need for businesses to use 070 telephone numbers for their business telephone systems. Cloud Phone systems include call forwarding and multi device handling as standard, so employees can accept landline calls from either their desk phone or smartphone without the caller knowing the difference.
Hosted telephone systems provide businesses with the ‘One Number Anywhere’ facility. This gives you complete flexibility with the numbers you want to use. Just like 070 numbers, you can literally extend your business to reach and use any local area number. No matter where you are located. Have a London number in Birmingham, it’s completely up to you!
