How NGN calls work

NGN calls

Most NGN calls begin with 08 or 09, and usually offer information and entertainment services, and pay-as-you-go internet access.

Examples of NGN calls are:

• 0800 (or Freephone) calls, which cost you nothing;
• 0820 numbers, which schools use to connect to the internet;
• 0845 calls, charged at BT's standard local retail price for BT customers (assuming no other package deals or discounts apply);
• 0870 calls, charged at BT's standard national retail price for BT customers (again, assuming no other deals apply);
• 0844 calls, which cost up to 5p a minute, or 5p a call, for BT customer;
• 0871 calls, which cost up to 10p a minute, or 10p a call, for BT customers; and
• 09XX calls, which are charged at premium rates and usually cost more than 10p a minute (or 10p a call).

This means that, if you're dialling 0845 or 0870, you know the price as each number has its own fixed cost. However, there is a range of prices for calls to 0844 and 0871 numbers, up to a maximum of 5p and 10p a minute, or 5p and 10p a call. The most expensive NGN calls are to premium-rate 09 numbers. They can cost up to £1.50 a minute from the BT network, and include TV vote lines, competitions, adult services, chat lines, mobile phone ring-tone downloads and interactive TV games.

But these prices only apply to BT customers. Use your mobile phone, for example, and your provider can charge what they like. They must, of course, publish their price list so you know what you're paying but, when it comes to NGN calls, that information isn't always easy to find.

Unlike geographic calls, the profits are divided differently between the phone companies when it comes to NGN calls. This means that if you make an NGN call from your BT phone, BT (the 'originating provider') can only keep enough of what you pay to cover its costs. BT doesn't make any profit, and instead hands over the rest to the 'terminating provider' - the provider who receives the call. This is how the terminating provider makes a profit on NGN calls. The NGN service you ring may be provided by the terminating provider itself, or by another company - an NGN service provider' - who may not have a phone network of their own.

NGN calls are also different from geographic calls because they have no 'home' or specific location. In fact, if you call the customer services department of a large company at a busy time, your call could be sent wherever they're able to handle it - one of their call centres in the UK or, for that matter, anywhere in the world.

Since the originating provider (BT in our example) cannot keep any of the profit, there aren't usually any discounts on the cost of NGN calls. However, more and more originating providers offer attractive call packages that include cheap geographic inland and international calls. When you compare them, NTS numbers can start to look costly.

The terminating provider can use the profit from NGN calls to pay for the costs of routing the calls to the service provider. Some of this profit also pays for some, or even all, of the service itself. Many important services are financed this way, and couldn't exist without it. Dial-up, pay-as-you-go internet access is just one example. Here you don't pay a monthly fee, and the whole service is paid for by everyone's phone call charges. But if NGN service providers didn't get a share of the call prices, there probably wouldn't be such a wide range of services available over the phone.