p2pnet.net News:- Punch in 056 for the Net, says Ofcom, Britain’s regulator for the UK communications industries.

Ofcom says it’ll also offer users geographic numbers beginning with 01 or 02.

The announcement comes under Ofcom’s approach to new voice services, including Voice over Broadband (VoB).

“Our first task … is to keep out of the way,” says chief executive Stephen Carter.

Where a call connects from one VoB service to another, the only cost to the consumer is typically a standard monthly fee, “regardless as to whether the call is to the next town or to the other side of the world,” says the government regulator.

New voice services also offer features such as sophisticated call handling and messaging, multi-party conference calls and video calls, currently the preserve of large corporations.

“Additionally, the comparatively low cost of the technology required means that the barriers to entry for new companies are lower than those in traditional switched-circuit telephony,” says Ofcom, going on that those advantages, coupled with increasing competition in the wholesale broadband market, are likely to mean consumers will benefit from the choice of a wide range of providers.

“Ofcom’s approach is intended to minimise the regulatory burden associated with the creation and delivery of new voice services whilst ensuring that providers benefit from fair and effective competition in the infrastructure markets upon which they will depend,” it says.

Go here for a FAQ on the new voice services.

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UPDATE:- In an earlier headline, we had 065 for the Net number. That is, of course, incorrect. It should be ‘056′. Our apologies.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 6th, 2004 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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