Posted on: 7th May 2024, by Magrathea
Welcome to the May newsletter, combining news from Magrathea and around the industry.
Gaining Provider Led Switching & Porting / One Touch Switch (OTS)
Our clients will have received an email already with a link to our simple guidance as well as a survey, please do take a minute to respond so we can best consider the options to support you and your customers going forward.
Ofcom have recently sent TOTSCo a statutory information request to check on progress of this project, which is a good indicator that they are going to do their best to ensure that one touch switching will be up and running in September. Ofcom are very unlikely to accept any further delays!
The guidance can be found here. And the survey can be accessed here, closing date of 17th May.
Due diligence guidance
With many countries tightening up on their regulations, and the way calls enter their domestic market, we are trying to support our clients by offering some best practice guidance. Our guides can only offer general assistance as each of you serve a different market and have unique business practices, but you may find them a good double check of your existing due diligence and ‘know your customer’ checks. New guides have been added to our download page for the UK and USA, with Ireland due to be released later this month. Please visit www.magrathea-telecom.co.uk/clientinfo and search the ’Information for new clients’ section.
UK Fraud Charter
It is highly possible that not many of our clients are aware of the UK Fraud Charter that has been in place since 2021. The Charter was created by a very small group of people and only the largest operators signed up to it (see here for a copy). The charter ended in December 2023.
Despite this, it has reportedly had a big impact. The first Charter is reported to have stopped 960 million scam texts and was overall considered highly successful, but the threat continues and scam tactics evolve, meaning more must be done. The second Charter will try to tackle information sharing within the sector (one of the areas the Home Office recognise wasn’t successfully tackled in the first Charter) as well as mass texting, law enforcement engagement, number management, scam texts, scam calls and victim support.
As the first Charter has ended the current government Anti-Fraud Champion, Simon Fell MP, has recently kicked off the project to create a second iteration of the Charter. Simon, and key people within the Home Office are planning to widen the input and the number of signatories to ensure even greater impact. Through our work with CCUK we are lucky to have been invited to the initial meeting and will be part of the resulting working groups.
The Home Office are leading the work and have asked participants to form working groups to discuss each area over the summer with a view to having a new Charter ready to launch in October. As well as the usual large operators, the hope is to have more smaller networks and service providers represented to ensure the Charter works across the complex business supply chain and is widely effective in tackling fraud. We will share updates as this project progresses.
Public Switched Telephone Network Charter
Another very relevant voluntary Charter is the one that a number of large providers signed up to late last year. The PSTN Charter was created to address concerns over the PSTN switch off programme and the issue with leaving many vulnerable users without access to essential support systems.
The Charter essentially confirms that providers won’t force a switch until a vulnerable user has an alternative working solution and, specifically, they will pause migrations where the user has Telecare until they confirm they have a suitable working solution. You can see the Charter in full here.
Some press reports suggest that this means a two-year delay for Openreach’s PSTN closure programme, but of course there is still a push to migrate within the original timeframe. With an old network that is difficult to support, and the various benefits of being on a digital solution, it’s important that progress keeps going at a pace.
We are especially supportive of keeping up the momentum by supporting our clients to make the most of this opportunity and grab a larger share of the market.
Restricted Tariff options
Our Restricted Tariff options offer you the ability to limit the destinations that can be dialled through your outgoing calling account. There are two options to limit the destinations you can dial by pence per minute on both the standard and gold route plans – you can choose either 3p per minute or 15p per minute as a restriction.
These changes can be made via our Client Portal or RestAPI, if you are not already using one of these tools or you cannot see the new feature down the left hand side of your Client Portal home screen, please contact us on support@magrathea-telecom.co.uk and we can very quickly arrange for you to have access to these tools, or to adjust your level of access so that you can use this feature.
What’s on our minds…
With our new team members settling in and the updated due diligence project well underway, through May we will be focussing a little more on the Irish side of our business. With a statement from Comreg recently released confirming the details of the updated numbering plan and best practice guides, we will take the opportunity to review our existing processes and ensure we are providing the best advice and a fully compliant solution going forward.
Alongside this we have carried out a rate review and are currently working on a multi-currency package for Irish clients to ensure working with us is as straight forward as possible.
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
Kind regards
Magrathea
The information contained in this guidance is for your information only and is not intended to be relied on. It does not constitute legal professional advice, nor is it a substitute for you obtaining your own legal professional advice. Magrathea accepts no liability whatsoever for any errors, omissions or statements in this guidance or for any loss which may arise from your use of this guidance.