Posted on: 27th February 2020, by Magrathea
Welcome to the latest edition of the Magrathea Newsletter, combining news from Magrathea and around the industry.
Porting Portal Update – LOA feature
At the end of last year we introduced a new feature to our porting portal, enabling customers to upload a Letter of Authority to their port order as part of the port submission process.
We have received some great feedback on this feature – we are very pleased you are finding it useful and easy to use.
For anyone who has not yet used it but thinks that this sounds like it could be useful, please see the guide on using this feature here: https://mdh-dev-web-01.magrathea.net/wp-content/uploads/PortingPortalLoAUserGuide-1.pdf .
Tariff Review
We have recently carried out a full rate review and have decided it’s time to make some changes to help us and our clients continue to thrive going forward. We have introduced some additional tariff plans that are available to clients who are prepared to make spend commitments with us.
Our standard rate plans will continue to be regularly reviewed as it always has been and will remain competitive for all clients not wishing to make minimum spend commitments, however for customers who are willing to make spend commitments, we can offer a better rate on calls as well as our minimum charge in some cases.
If this is of interest please drop us an email to sales@magrathea-telecom.co.uk and the team can chat with you with a view to using one of these new tariffs.
A reminder about our EU calling tariff
For some time now, some European destinations have been charging higher rates for ingressing traffic that originates outside of Europe. Each of these countries is only required by regulation to cap prices for calls originating inside the EEA, therefore many of them have chosen to set different rates for calls originating outside the EEA
Many of the networks that carry traffic to these destinations are unable to differentiate between calls originated within or outside the EEA and therefore they set their prices for the worst case scenario and we end up paying the non EEA rate for all calls. This is the reason that our prices have unfortunately looked expensive to some destinations recently on our standard tariffs.
If you are not already using our EU CLI tariff, this is a separate tariff where, if the caller IDs that you are sending on calls are European caller IDs, you will be able to call surcharged destinations for ‘within EEA’ rates – i.e. without the surcharge. This is great news as it is making us very competitive again on these destinations!
For more information including rates on this tariff, please drop the team an email at support@magrathea-telecom.co.uk and we can get you started on this tariff very quickly. The tariff uses our same high quality routes and so the only difference you will see is to the pricing.
International numbering (ITFS)
In addition to our complete range of UK and Irish numbers we can also offer a range of International Freephone numbers.
If you have customers with an International presence, or you want to offer your customers abroad a free local number to contact you on, we can help!
If you would like to see our rates or more information about these services, please drop us an email to sales@magrathea-telecom.co.uk
Ofcom Consultations – our review of the year to date
Last Spring, Ofcom published three consultations which were absolutely critical to our industry – promoting trust in telephone numbers, the future of telephone numbers and the future of interconnection and call termination.
Ofcom had committed to reviewing these three areas in the Annual Plan and this review was widely welcomed by many of us who recognise that the communication sector is evolving at a rapid pace and we need the regulator to keep up!
We have summarised our responses to the consultations and the responses from Ofcom here: https://www.magrathea-telecom.co.uk/regulatory-review-the-year-so-far/
Our industry as a whole is embarking on a huge period of change and we are working hard here to stay abreast of all the issues and represent our client’s best interests in our dealings with Ofcom. If you would like to discuss how any of these consultations or plans might impact you or would like to get your own views heard so we can take that into consideration on future responses, please do get in touch.
ITSPA Awards
This year’s ITSPA awards will be held on 30th April at a new and very exciting looking venue, Sea Containers in central London.
We are very proud to be sponsors again this year, the awards are one of the highlights of the industry calendar and a great opportunity for networking as well as celebrating the achievements in our industry throughout the year.
Registration for awards has now closed and the shortlists will be announced on 13th March. For more information and tickets please see https://www.itspa.org.uk/itspa-awards/
We are looking forward to seeing many of our customers there!
Ofcom – Guidelines about end of contract terms
Earlier this month, Ofcom brought in new requirements on communications providers to notify their end users – both residential and business – when the minimum contract period comes to an end. CP’s are required to tell their end user what price implications there will be for going out-of-contract and the contract termination policies.
The new requirements have been brought in from 15th February 2020 to try to reduce ‘bill shock’ for customers, when a contract runs into out-of-contract pricing and terms.
More information can be found here:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations-and-statements/category-2/end-of-contract-notifications https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/148140/statement-helping-consumers-get-better-deals.pdf
Introducing Vicki Peskett and Ben Protheroe.
Our team has expanded again and we are pleased that Vicki Peskett has joined us to work as Executive Assistant to our team of Directors. Vicki is an experienced PA and EA bringing with her a great deal of experience from roles within telecoms as well as other industries, she is already a great asset to the team here at Magrathea.
Also, our Porting Team has expanded and we are very happy to have Ben Protheroe on the team. Ben has had a great deal of experience in customer service roles. He has fitted in well on the team and is making himself very useful on the porting desk – please say a big hello if you speak to him!
As always here at Magrathea we appreciate your comments and feedback, if there is anything you would like to contact us about, or you would like to opt out of receiving future newsletters, please email info@magrathea-telecom.co.uk