From: "NoSpam" 
Newsgroups: uk.finance alt.consumers.uk-discounts.and.bargains uk.telecom.mobile uk.telecom
Subject: Re: 18866 and protecting your data (or Who Wants Cold Calls?)
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 21:44:06 +0100

"Oliver"  wrote in message
news:3m59k096hhb33rot1ke97cm68co4kumq14@4ax.com...
> On Sun, 12 Sep 2004 16:40:08 +0100, "NoSpam"
>  wrote:
>
> >The 60 minute / 70 minute limit imposed by BT, TalkTalk and other
companies
> >are simply measures put in place so that people don't just ring a number
and
> >then put down the phone and leave it like that (when I say put down the
> >phone I don't mean disconnect the call).
>
> Peak rates are a whole different kettle of fish, though.
>
> Oliver.

True - I'm not sure about the absolute specifics, but companies like 18866
work slightly differently.  They buy minutes in bulk and I don't think that
it is time dependent - some calls have different rates for say weekends
(i.e. differences on a day basis), but not the hour of day and certainly the
difference in cost for landline calls on such large volumes are such that
there would be little difference in day or night rate.  This might explain
why mobile calls in the evening during the weekdays are the same as during
the day - not sure.  Maybe someone that works in this industry could
enlighten us.

Nevertheless, no matter how they do it, I don't think they are committing
financial suicide.  They're not in a position where they are seeing their
revenues falling in such a dramatic way that they are making one final
desperate move before going bust.

AMO