For calls from 02 at least.
Sticking with the telecoms theme but wearing a tinfoil hat…
Seems o2 is increasing the cost per minute of accessing 1850 numbers. Consumers who ring the number won’t be hit with the price, instead they will still pay their 20.66 cents per minute but network operators who manage the 1850 numbers also had to pay 02 around 4 cents a minute for them to connect the call. Now they want 16 cents a minute from the operators. All well and good but someone, somewhere has to pay it, and the telcos will hardly take a hit like that and not pass it on. So it looks like the crowd who own the number will be paying a good deal more. Many charities as well as businesses use this lo-call number. This might make it uneconomical for many to continue this. Trouble is ComReg have already approved this price increase. ComReg have 21 days to decide to approve this or not.