Ofcom goes to war over ‘070’ use

Regime change prompts investigation

By John Oates • Get more from this author

Posted in Mobile, 1st March 2004 13:02 GMT

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British telecoms specialist Inclarity is under investigation by Ofcom, accused of misusing telephone numbers allocated by the British government.

The row centres on use of '070' numbers - which can be transferred from landline to mobile phones. These numbers come with a list of strict restrictions on their use.

Nilesh Pandya, chief finance officer at Inclarity, said: "We are working with Ofcom on the 070 issue. The guidance, which we were following, was originally set by Oftel. Those guidelines changed in January and we are working with Ofcom to ensure that we comply with them."

He said the guidelines were designed to regulate personal numbers in the UK and needed to be changed to match new, and international, uses.

Pandya said talks with Ofcom were no more than an operational discussion and there was no question of the service ending.

Earlier this year Inclarity won the contract to provide an international gateway for the Mosul region of northern Iraq, home to four million people.

The gateway uses a dedicated satellite space segment to connect to inclarity's international, Tier1 switching network. Inclarity works with Asia Cell - one of three companies with Iraqi GSM licenses. Asia Cell hopes to get a license for services across the country later this year. ®