The problem of the packages is more difficult

As everything was so simple at the time of the Audiotel! Today, it is very difficult to navigate the jungle of the freephone numbers which have replaced the ancient France Telecom service. Thirty years ago, there was only one operator in France, and only fixed-line telephones. Today, hundreds of thousands of businesses and Governments of all sizes use numbers in 08, to put their clients in relationship with consultants, provide information or to sell a service or content...

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Moreover, a genuine market developed around these "value-added services" (SVA): suppliers of services (weather, astrology, eroticism or even e-commerce), operators specialized Prosody (multi-channel services operator), specialists in the optimization of networks such as Akamai. In this blossoming, tends to lose sight of the concerns of the consumer.

Negotiations

That is why the regulator of telecommunications, Arcep (regulation of electronic communications authority and positions), and operators of telecommunications via Professional Federation, TFF, negotiate for a few years to make it more readable and less expensive SVA. The Constable of the sector thus observed that people who called these numbers did not always was free (0 80) or paid (0 81 to 0 89), and even less what tariff level apply.

Operators have therefore put in place accessible to the 30 08 vocal server, which enables to know the tariff that is associated with each number: price of communication but also price of the service. It works since the month of July. Moreover, since January, for the most expensive calls (more than 15 cents per minute or call), operators are required to provide information on the price of the communication before the start of it.

The rest of the freephone calls, he will be a briefing from January 2011.

The problem of the packages is more difficult. With the appearance of the box and mobile phones, the price of the freephone numbers became unreadable: they are indeed recorded Extras, with different costs if called from a fixed, a box or a mobile. Azure (08 10, 08 11) numbers that were presented as "in the price of a local communication"... can no longer be, as indeed it must often pay more.

Imbalances

Pole employment had implemented a vocal server for job seekers, posted 12 cents per minute, for a fixed price. But when users called from their mobile, their bills exploded, which did not breach of scandalized opinion. Arcep therefore succeeded in obtaining the operators that do enter the price of the call in number azure from a mobile or a box in the package, in 2008 and 2009. "Profits for operators is EUR 70 million per year," said Yves Le Mouël, the FFT.

Now, operators are demanding the creation of a tax of 3 cents on the 08 00, while retaining their status as non-freephone numbers. This is to finance the "imbalances of engineering", related to the flow suddenly calls, for example the unemployed who register at the beginning of each month in three days. But the Arcep, it considers that this technical constraint is largely exaggerated by the operators. Case to follow...