A SayNoTo1890.com reader has asked if anyone might have a geographic alternative for their standard number – 1890 990 707.
If you can help out, drop me an e-mail here – or make a comment below, and I’ll share with everyone else.
Number Request: CheapCalls.ie
Oct 23rd, 2009 at 09:45
Hi its me again – that irritating person who answered a similar query a few months ago but doesn’t seem to have been heeded by you guys at saynoto 1890!
The previous query was regarding “Dialwise”, and I wrote a longish response outlining why this query makes no sense. The whole point of companies like Dialwise and Cheapcalls.ie is that they are offering a service for which they have to charge, otherwise it would be a pretty daft idea to set up a company.
As I pointed out before, unlike most other 1890 numbers these are not companies which you phone up and expect to speak to a person in the company. You phone up in order to then dial up another number (outside Ireland), and you are connected by the company (in this case Cheapcalls.ie)for a considerably reduced rate.
When I said this before, you good people at saynoto1890 argued with me that it wouldn’t be cheap from mobiles etc. You’re all missing the point! Think about it – you want a landline for this company’s service (NOT to speak to the company itself), you then dial the number you want (abroad), and because you have free calls to landlines you get the whole thing for free. But what’s in it for Cheapcalls.ie? They’ve set up this service at a cost to themselves to give you completely free calls abroad??
They have to charge something to run the service and its a very cheap way to make foreign calls from landlines. Mobiles that’s a different story. These services are chiefly useful for calling from landlines.
Saynoto1890 is great, keep up the good work! But please realise that these companies are also helping us keep our costs down if we just have regular landline contracts with no free calls abroad etc.
Hi Edel,
Thanks for your comments.
There is one key point to note here – CheapCalls.ie don’t make any money from providing a 1890 number for their customers.
1890 and 1850 numbers are not revenue sharing numbers – 0818 is for example.
Therefore, it should make no difference whatsoever whether this company provides an 01 number, or a 1890 number.
Diarmuid
Hi Diarmuid.
Interesting point, and very puzzling indeed!
Don’t get me wrong, I am with you wholeheartedly on the idea that we should be able to phone any company in Ireland on their landline.
These “access numbers” are an automated service, and may not even be based in Ireland for all we know.
“Cheapcalls” and the like must be making money somehow or else why would they set up?, Unlike websites, its not through advertising, so what can it be?
I for one am not complaining anyway! I regularly use “Dialwise” to phone the UK from my landline using their 1890 number and I’m delighted with the service. I can talk for half an hour for around 40 cents (total). I’m very very happy with that, and would’t expect to get it for nothing.
I’ve also passed the number on to friends who phone Italy and Mexico for the same rate!
I used to live in the UK, where I first heard about “access numbers” and phoned home using a company called “Budgetcom” on 0845, and at the time it was about 2p a minute with BT.
I don’t know how these companies provide this service, but I would prefer it was done through a 1890 number than not at all.
There must be some benefit to them to do it via 1890 rather than a landline. If anyone could shed any light it would be interesting.
I must take issue with the assertion that 1890 are not “revenue sharing” and therefore that there is no issue.
We get these sorts of enquiries all time at SAYNOTO0870.COM. These “cheap” dial-through call providers wouldn’t make any money, in fact they would make a loss, if any alternative number was published.
Let’s take CheapCalls.ie. It is one of many services operated by Finarea. You call 1890 990707 for certain destinations.
A check of ComReg’s number allocations shows that 1890 990xxx numbers are allocated to Finarea.
So Finarea is the telecommunications provider for this number block!
It receives all the “termination” payments for calls to these numbers. They, I bet you, are higher than if it were on a normal geographical number.
To get an idea, let’s consider some figures published by Eircom Wholesale on its website.
Imagine you’re a telephone call provider (retailer) like TalkTalk is. Your customers call an Eircom geographical (landline) number, it will cost you (as a business) around 0.5c per minute.
On the other hand, if your customer dials a 1890 number, it will cost your business around 4c per minute. The difference, or “premium” is therefore around 3.5c per minute.
This premium is a subsidy to the call recipient’s telephone service provider.
The term “revenue sharing” is commonly used where some of this payment is passed directly to the call recipient. Denial of revenue sharing has no effect on what the caller pays, but that has nothing to do with the caller’s telephone company. In all cases there is a subsidy to the receiver, passed to its telephone provider.
Think of revenue share merely as cash-back. It drives down the level of payment to the end (terminating) communications provider (operating on behalf of the call recipient).
It is commonly perceived that the issue with these sorts of numbers is simply the revenue share. The revenue share is merely the effect of the subsidy which is a product of choosing a number that yields a higher termination charge.