Ofcom is considering price ceilings on BT’s local and national rate call charges.

In a series of announcements and consultations, Ofcom said it’s focusing on number translation services (NTS), particularly 0845 (local rate) and 0870 (national rate) numbers that offer consumers and businesses access to services that include dial-up pay-as- you-go Internet access, televoting and telephone banking.

The numbers are often advertised as local and national rate but growing competition for fixed-line telephone calls has created a wide range of prices and discount call packages for local and national calls to geographic numbers.

That means the cost of calling an 0845 number can exceed the charge for a local geographic call, and the cost of dialing an 0870 number can be higher than that for a national geographic call, Ofcom said. Its initial findings include: (1) BT has significant market power in the NTS termination market. (2) BT should be required to provide NTS call termination on fair and reasonable terms and to give competitors the same service terms and prices as are available to BT.

Key proposals include: (1) Removing the links between BT 0845/0870 tariffs and BT’s normal local call rates, to give both BT Retail and alternative carriers the opportunity to price their rates more competitively to ISPs. (2) Setting price ceilings of 4 pence per min. for 0845 calls and 8 pence per min. for 0870 calls. (3) Publishing new guidance to prevent misleading advertisements of 0845 and 0870 services. (4) Providing guidance to govt. department contact centers on the best use of those numbers. (5) Expanding the role of the premium rate regulator, the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services, to cover some or all of the services offered on 0845 and 0870 numbers.

Comments are due Jan. 7.