Clause 116 - Conditions regulation premium rate services
Communications Bill
6:30 pm
Mr Michael Fabricant (Lichfield, Conservative)
As if by telepathy, the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam made the main points that I wanted to make. You will be pleased to know, Mr. Gale, that that rather curtails what I intended to say.
The hon. Gentleman said, rightly, that the ability to recognise a premium rate service will diminish over time. What role does the Minister envisage for Ofcom in educating subscribers to recognise a premium rate service? At the moment we know that a premium rate telephone number commences with 09, but that is quite a recent innovation, before which there was no standard system of numbering. We all know that 07 numbers are mobile telephones or pagers, that 08 numbers are special rate numbers, including toll-free numbers, and that 09 numbers are premium rate numbers.
In the past, Oftel has had a role in educating people in what the numbers mean, because they have a direct impact on how the numbers are used. Does the Minister envisage Ofcom having a role in ensuring that subscribers recognise whether a number is premium rate? As the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam asked, what will happen in future, when premium rate numbers are not only 09 numbers, and there are other ways of accessing or sending data such as television or still pictures by means of mobile telephony, for which services there are extra charges? What role will Ofcom have in ensuring that the subscriber recognises that?
Finally, does Ofcom have a role in ensuring that the numbers system, including the 09 system, is maintained? Does the Minister envisage that future services will also be categorised logically? I remind the Minister that the 07, 08 and 09 numbering system is quite a recent innovation. How will it be maintained in future, and how will it be extended into the new systems of communication so admirably described by the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam?