Businesses must stop using expensive five-digit telephone numbers
Many Norwegian companies use expensive five-digit numbers for customer service. A recent judgment makes it illegal for companies to charge more than normal mobile phone charges.
It can cost you 30 to 40 kroners to wait in a telephone queue for ten minutes at the bank, insurance company or power supplier if you call a five-digit number from a mobile phone, reported NRK news. This will end, say government authorities.
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Following a new EU verdict, it has become illegal for Norwegian companies to offer only five-digit phone numbers to their customers, according to the news channel. National Communications Authority (Nkom) has suggested that telecom operators change prices for special numbers on a regular basis.
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Together with the Consumer Ombudsman, Nkom is now considering how to proceed, and have planned a meeting during the course of this week.
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‘If it’s not possible to reach an agreement, we will conduct a supervisory action with business operators in several industries to see if expensive, ‘special’ numbers are still being used by customer services’, said Bente Øverli, Deputy Head of Consumer Services.
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Nkom estimates that telecommunications companies earned up to half a billion kroner by using five-digit numbers in 2016.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
