The Mercedes S1703 AMG 4Matic has a premium rate of $3,513.
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State regulators have not yet announced next year's premium rate hike.
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Premium rate filings and accompanying benefit plans for 2018 are essentially complete.
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The premium rate drop was expected by those who watch the industry closely.
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These regulators review every product, mandate detailed premium rate filings and conduct thorough audits each year.
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An RV "Supersite" — which goes for a premium rate of $1,490 — offers a fully enclosed campsite.
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The hot rod's premium rate, however, is still $200 more than the next most expensive model's premium.
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Most people will be subject to the standard Medicare Part B premium rate of $135.50 in 2019.
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Trump also suspended a reduction in the premium rate offered by the Federal Housing Administration to home buyers.
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It said Monarch staff were even asked to ring a premium-rate number to hear about their redundancies.
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They can only factor in three things — age, location, and tobacco use — in setting a shopper's premium rate.
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This means I am reporting changes almost every month and it affects my premium rate for the next month.
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If the initiative works, and more younger adults enroll, it could help control premium rate increases in future years.
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Health insurers are preparing 2018 premium rate proposals to submit to federal and state insurance regulators over the next few months.
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Overall profitability was supported by strong underwriting performance improved as a result of premium rate increases in motor third party liability line.
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Those subsides, which almost 85 percent of enrollees get, can largely, or completely insulate them from the effects of premium rate increases.
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The company has initiated several rounds of premium rate increases and introduced changes to its LTC product offerings designed to improve profitability.
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Revenue rose 9.4 percent to $24.67 billion, beating Wall Street estimates of $24.28 billion, helped by membership growth and premium rate increases.
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Total operating revenue rose 4.5 percent to $22.45 billion, reflecting premium rate increases, and came in above analysts' estimate of $22.25 billion.
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Fitch believes that Berkley remains positioned to expand premium opportunistically with underwriting exposure growth at a time where premium rate competition is increasing.
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Since its enactment, ObamaCare has kicked 4.7 million Americans off of their healthcare plans and forced double-digit premium rate increases on families.
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Improved investment yields from rising interest rates would support earnings, but strong competition is expected to constrain premium rate increases and underwriting margins.
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Modest near-term insurance premium rate improvement is expected in some reinsurance and commercial insurance segments following a year of large natural catastrophe losses.
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But as much as I enjoy commanding a premium rate, I've struggled to come to terms with allowing myself to be fetishized so blatantly.
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"Either we should increase the premium rate or increase the copayment, or we have to delete some coverage items," Chang, the former NHIA director, says.
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Total revenue rose 9.4 percent to $24.67 billion, beating analysts' estimates of $24.28 billion, helped by membership growth across the company's businesses and premium rate increases.
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Continued flat or declining premium rate changes in most commercial insurance segments and a soft reinsurance market will likely persist in 2017, pressuring brokers' organic growth.
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Sompo Japan Nipponkoa has maintained its healthy underwriting profitability during the recent three years, due mainly to a sustained increase in the motor insurance premium rate.
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Insurance departments across the country have reported that insurers have submitted premium rate increases of up to 0.643 percent and 60 percent or even higher for 2018.
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With competing rates near zero, the Fed could get away with a premium rate on reserves, but as rates begin inching up, continuing that policy becomes untenable.
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Obama last year traveled to Tennessee to tout the healthcare law and specifically pointed to the premium rate review process as an important safeguard against premium hikes.
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You introduced a student rate, and then there's a super-high premium rate for 239 grand, but I assume most of them are paying $252 a year.
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Obamacare mandated that premium rate increases of 10 percent or more in the individual market be scrutinized by state regulators to ensure that they are necessary and reasonable.
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Benchmark plans are ones whose monthly premium rate affect the value of subsidies that most Obamacare customers receive if they buy a plan on a government-run marketplace.
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Insurers must submit premium rate proposals to federal and state insurance regulators in the next few months and Aetna said it had notified them of its plans on Thursday.
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Life insurance is all about risk — the insurer assesses a policy based on likelihood of mortality, and the consumer is charged a premium rate based on complex actuarial tables.
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While some traders have pointed to Delivery Hero's larger global footprint as reason to justify its premium rate, others have warned the company could be vulnerable to sustaining heavy losses.
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She says that rather than paying a premium rate of no less than $5.99 per 9.78 fluid ounces -- not including tax -- she insists that it should be cheaper than that.
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Gimme the trash TV. It is a sure competitor to Foxtel, which charges a premium rate on a fixed contract with installation costs to watch the same reality TV shows.
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Health insurers in California will be able to submit two separate premium rate filings for plans sold in the Affordable Care Act's individual marketplace, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said Friday.
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"International revenue share fraud is when fraudsters intentionally drive phone calls to premium rate phone numbers," Tim Prugar, vice president of fraud-detection company Next Caller told the New York Times.
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The Cleveland Plain Dealer on Saturday reported that insurers in Ohio have begun filing new, much-higher premium rate increase requests with state regulators in case Trump ends the CSR payments.
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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ruled that Paul Flowers, who was also a Methodist minister, had used his work cell-phone to call a premium rate chat line offering sexual content.
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Kathy Hempstead of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said that as premium rate filings for next year are announced, "We will continue to see a lot of regional variation in proposed increases."
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Health insurers on the Obamacare exchanges are planning on big premium rate hikes and blaming the White House for not guaranteeing to continue the subsidies they receive for remaining in the program.
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"Although market conditions were challenging, depressing our earnings, we entered 2019 with positive premium rate momentum and higher interest rates that should deliver stronger returns going forward," Chief Executive Officer Andrew Horton said.
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"International revenue share fraud is when fraudsters intentionally drive phone calls to premium rate phone numbers," said Tim Prugar, the vice president of operations at Next Caller, a real-time verification technology company.
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Cynthia Cox, one of the authors of the research, said that she would expect regulators will, as they did in past years, lower at least some of the premium rate increases proposed for 2017.
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Health plans are held accountable to consumers and taxpayers, from formulary requirements to premium rate reviews, and rules that at least 85 cents of every Medicare premium dollar be spent on direct medical care.
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P&C premium rate increases totalled around 2 percent overall, though Quinn said rates in North American regions affected by last year's natural catastrophes such as hurricanes and wildfires were likely to rise further.
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Clinton's response in the debate was notably different from how the Obama administration talks about premium rate increases — it might signal how a new, Democratic president can speak more critically about the health care law.
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"As you look into the future, we would expect premium rate changes to follow claims inflation, with some uncertainty surrounding the proposed changes to the Ogden rate, and also from the planned whiplash reforms," Hoffman said.
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The packet also pointed out that the law's financial assistance defrays the cost of premium rate increases for 85033 percent of enrollees and gave examples of "Coverage of Administration Push-Back on Rates," highlighting positive articles in the media.
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Land transactions by area fell 22 percent in 40 major Chinese cities in October from the preceding month, while the land transaction premium rate was two percentage points lower than September, according to data from CRIC, a private research firm.
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Robert Reynolds, manager of the iconic American rock band The Killers, suggests that bundling music streaming services with television or video streaming providers could return the music industry to its glory days by charging a premium rate as low as $4.
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"One of the steps we have taken at Unum to decrease the financial risk posed by our long term care business is to file for premium rate increases as allowed under our contracts and the law," said Unum spokeswoman Kelly Spencer.
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It turns out there's a correlation between low scores and the likelihood of filing a claim, so it's a factor in setting your premium rate for auto and homeowner's insurances (except in California, Hawaii and Massachusetts, where state law prohibits the practice).
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The expansion of telematics to full coverage of the market is unlikely to trigger premium rate reductions that have a large impact on profitability because the market is barely above break-even, meaning that there is limited scope for profit margins to be reduced.
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If you want to receive calls from regular numbers, you'll need the new $35 Connect box that Amazon unveiled on Wednesday, which also allows you to use your home telephone number for Echo calls and dial emergency services like 911 or premium rate / international numbers.
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While Fitch expects price competition to intensify in most commercial lines product segments, THG's strong agency relationships are focused on smaller commercial business accounts which have traditionally experienced less pricing sensitivity and better policy retention, which could promote better premium rate sustainability compared with peers.
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Two GE subsidiaries hold its long-term care insurance: Employers Reassurance Corp and Union Fidelity Life Insurance Co. Both are reinsurers, which means GE must pay out on policies that others wrote and is prevented from seeking premium rate increases directly from state insurance commissions, experts said.
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NEW YORK, June 20 (Reuters) - The California Department of Managed Health Care approved Aetna Inc's acquisition of Humana Inc with conditions that it says will control health care costs in the state, such as minimum premium rate increases in the small group HMO business and about $50 million in community investments.
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The backdoored Pokemon Go APK includes even more extensive app permissions than the legitimate APK — including the ability to make calls and send SMSes (which could be used by the app to rack up premium rate fees in the background), as well as the ability to record audio, read your web history and more.
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Premium rate numbers start with 1900, they usually serves call-in customers but in some cases they will also receive premium rate SMS.
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Numbers starting with 0900, 0939 and 0944 are premium rate numbers. Also numbers beginning on 118 are premium rate numbers for companies that provide phonebook lookup services.
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There are many premium rate numbers, including 144 (disabled by default), 166, 892, 899, using different fares. 0878 is also a premium-rate number, reserved for polls run via telephone.
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The 0900 prefix is used in Slovakia for premium rate numbers.
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The 090 prefix is used for premium rate numbers in Slovenia.
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The 0900 prefix is used for premium rate numbers that charge per minute and the 0901 prefix is used for premium rate numbers that charge by call. For adult content the prefix is 0930 for per minute tariffs and 0931 for event based tariffs.
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Channel 4 had announced that, following a spate of revelations of improper conduct regarding premium-rate phone services across British television programmes (notably on "Richard & Judy"), it was scrapping all premium-rate phone competitions, with the single exception of Deal or No Deal, with profits from the viewer's competition going to charity. As of 1 October 2007, the viewer's competition had ended. In 2014, the viewer's competition returned in an altered form. A suite of prizes were on offer (usually for a week at a time) and viewers were invited to phone in (on a premium rate number), text (on a premium rate number) or enter for free on their website.
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In Australia, premium rate numbers generally begin with the prefix 19, with premium-rate voice services using the prefix 190x. Of these 1900 was the initial prefix and is the most common; since then 1901 and 1902 have also been allocated. The 1901 prefix is specifically reserved for "restricted services", where a user must register with the provider of the service on that number - these can include services of a sexual nature, although this is not the only definition of "restricted". The prefix 1906 is reserved for premium-rate paging services. Other numbers beginning with 19 are generally used for premium rate short message service (SMS) services on mobile phones.
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Premium rate numbers in Mexico are served by Telmex and start with the dialling prefix 01-900, where 01 is the domestic long-distance prefix and 900 is the premium- rate area code. These numbers are usually used for the same purposes as in the United States.
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Programs that collect donations or sell via Premium-rate telephone number (900-number) have additional disclosure requirements.
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Effective on December 1, 2008, 300 and 400 numbers are changed into 703 and 704 respectively, freeing up the whole 30x and 40x range for the future assignments (non-premium rate). This change will allow to accumulate all the premium rate services in the 700-709 range of numbers.
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Premium rate numbers start with the prefix 060 followed by 7 or 8 digits. Some consumers do not know that numbers starting with 060 are premium rate numbers because 060 is mistaken for one of long-distance area codes in Korea (there are 062, 061 and 063). They call back when they find that they miss a call to their mobile phones from a 060 number ending up paying for just making a call. 1588-#### and 1577-#### are not premium rate numbers per se.
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In February 2010, Zamano was fined £35,000 by PhonePayPlus for breaching its terms and conditions in relation to unsolicited reverse-charge premium rate SMS messages. In May 2009, Red Circle were also fined £15,000 by PhonePayPlus in relation to unsolicited reverse-charge premium rate SMS messages. In March 2012, Zamano was fined a further £50,000 by PhonePayPlus for breaching its terms and conditions in relation to unsolicited reverse-charge premium rate SMS messages. Between May 2012 and September 2013 Zamano received 587 complaints from consumers in relation to a competition service, "Play2Win".
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The 060 prefix is used for premium rate numbers in Croatia for non-erotic and 064 prefix is used for erotic services.
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These premium rate services air features unedited, uncut, and commercial-free, the same way they were shown on theaters and/or home video.
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The industry's regulatory body PhonepayPlus (formerly ICSTIC) monitors and enforces specific community standards in terms of content and price for premium rate numbers.
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There are also special 4 digits numbers (national speed dial) in the form of 3xxx, for which billing rules can be the ones from any 08xx number, to the provider's choice. The split rule between different premium rate numbers is not clearly defined (premium rate information numbers and premium rate entertainment numbers). The regulator (ARCEP, previously ART) had issued a range for Telephony over xDSL in the 087x range, which might confuse consumers, as calls to these numbers are billed as local calls nationwide. Starting 20 December 2005, these have been changed to 09xx numbers, which are dedicated to VoIP.
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After ICSTIS consultation in 2006 and 2007 numbers beginning 0871 (and 0872) began to be regulated by PhonepayPlus, the premium rate services regulator from 1 August 2009. This brings regulation in line with existing 09xx premium rate services, 070 personal numbers and 118 xxx directory enquiries. ICSTIS became PhonepayPlus on 15 October 2007. 0871 and 0872 numbers retained their revenue- share status.
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It was supposed to eliminate this practice. Implementation detail, and hence the level of success in achieving this aim, varies considerably from country to country. Computer criminals have used premium-rate numbers to defraud unsuspecting Internet users. One scheme involved inducing users to download a program known as a dialer that surreptitiously dialed a premium-rate number, accumulating charges on the user's phone bill without their knowledge.
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Finally, in April 2001, all such numbers were permanently withdrawn. Various new premium rate prefixes starting 090 and 091 have come into use in the years since and Ofcom has now set aside the whole of the 09 number range for use by premium- rate services. The block of numbers starting 098 is reserved for adult services with sexual content (alongside older 0908 and 0909 prefixes).
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The first premium rate television services were Phonevision, Telemeter, and SubscriberVision, among others. None of them were successful, until the launch of Home Box Office (HBO) in 1972, considered the first successful premium-rate subscription television service. Other services were launched: Z Channel, Showtime, The Movie Channel, Cinemax, Spotlight and Home Theater Network. Only HBO, Showtime, The Movie Channel and Cinemax survived through the 1980s.
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In Brazil, there is only one premium prefix: 0500, and this number is used by organizations receiving donations (it's a premium rate per call and not per minute). In the 1990s, numbers starting with 900 were used for that purpose and later numbers starting with 0900 was available, but now is no longer allowed. As there are no longer premium numbers, TV shows now use mobile numbers to receive calls and generate revenue to their program. For the same premium rate purpose, it is used of numbers destined to mobile phones with unusual code of selection of carriers for the purpose of charging a premium rate per minute.
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Some four digit numbers are premium rate numbers. These numbers can only be reached with a mobile phone and are mainly used for contests and sweepstakes.
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Shortcode activation protocol is a programming device that allows mobile phone users to send a short activation word to a premium rate phone line operated via SMS.
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In New Zealand, premium-rate telephone numbers begin with 0900. The service is used by phone sex companies, phone support services and for donations to charitable organizations.
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Numbers starting with 0100, 0200, 0202, 0209, 0300, 0600, 0700, 0750, 0751, 0752, 0753, 0757, 0759, 100, 106 and 107 are premium rate numbers. The 0700 series is for entertainment, while 0600 is for services. Several other premium codes exist, sometimes confusing consumers, who may not know if they are calling a premium number or not. The Finnish Consumers’ Association has repeatedly denounced the use of premium rate numbers.
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For value-added services such as freephone numbers, shared cost numbers and personal numbers, numbers will comprise nine digits, with the following format: 80X PQMCDU, (P ≠ 0) For valued-added services such as premium rate services for businesses, premium rate services that are leisure-related, and Internet access, numbers will comprise nine digits, with the following format: 90X PQMCDU (P ≠ 0) Numbers for intelligent network services are non-geographic.
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In Egypt, premium rate numbers begin with the prefix 0900, and for mobile services it uses short numbers to call or to send SMS to(4 digits only).
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The number of available codes for new services was quickly dwindling. In 1995, PhONEday partially addressed this by altering all geographic area codes to begin 01, freeing up hundreds of codes beginning 02 to 09 for other uses. Existing mobile, non-geographic and premium rate services continued as before, using various codes from 02 to 09 and with nine- digit numbers. In 1997 and 1998, mobile, non-geographic and premium rate numbers started to be issued with ten digits and using only specific new prefixes: 070 for personal numbers, 076 for pagers, 077xx, 078xx and 079xx for mobiles, 0800 and 0808 for freephone, 0845 and 0870 for non-geographic revenue-share numbers and 090x for premium rate numbers.
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During the 1980s and early 1990s, a range of premium rate prefixes were brought into use for a variety of purposes including competitions, recorded information, chat lines and television voting. The BT prefixes 0891 and 0898 became well-known, but a wide variety of other prefixes were also used including 0338, 0660, 0890 and 0991. From July 1998, numbers starting with 090 were progressively made available for all new premium-rate services. Initially, these were further subdivided by type: 0909 was for adult services, while 0907 was intended to be used as a pay-for- product range. A year later, on 1 July 1999, the promotion of services using older premium rate prefixes not starting with 090 was prohibited.
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On 5 March 2007, ITV announced that all premium rate phone competitions and quizzes, including the ITV Play channel, would be suspended while an audit took place. Programmes ended in the early hours of 6 March 2007. The audit was announced after a number of problems with premium rate services affecting ITV, BBC One and Channel 4, all of whom were to meet with the regulator ICSTIS. ITV appointed Deloitte as independent auditors.
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Special-rate numbers start with 8 and include toll-free numbers (called green numbers, numeri verdi in Italian, starting with "80..."), shared-rate numbers ("84...") and premium-rate services ("89...").
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In Hungary, 06-81, 06-90 and 06-91 followed by six digits are common premium-rate numbers. SMS-based services can also use short numbers such as 1781 and 17632.
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To prevent unintentional charges, subscribers may optionally register a four digit password which is then required when accessing a premium rate service. The DIAL Q2 service ended operations in early 2013.
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INM also held stakes in the Unison ISP and the iTouch electronic payments and premium rate telecoms operator, the controlling stake in the latter later being sold to a Japanese firm.
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With the diverse usage and pricing of similar looking codes there could easily be a nasty shock when the bill arrived. Office phone systems could be set to block various premium rate prefixes, but it was important to regularly review and update the list. For those that did not, problems accessing some numbers were beginning to develop. The 0930 code was mainly used for premium rate services, but 0930 7xxxxx was used by One2One for mobile telephone services.
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The internet dial-up services used similar numbers, like (01)893-xxxx and (0pp)890-xxx or (0pp)893-xxxx. Some premium-rate internet dial-up services used (01)899-xxxx. However, these services were charged at most twice or three times a local call, unless called from a different area. For a short time before the current numbering plan, two prefixes were implemented for toll-free numbers (080-xxx- xxx) and premium rate numbers (089-xxx-xxx).
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El Salvadoran telephone numbers are 8 digits long, usually written in the format 2NNN-NNNN (for landline use) and 7NNN-NNNN (for mobile telephone numbers). Premium-rate numbers start with a 9.
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Messages sent to these short codes are commonly referred to as Premium Rate SMS Messages and have a cost per message depending on the operator as well as the service and the company.
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These customer service issues were compounded by the fact that customers had to phone a premium rate number should they have any issues to resolve, with calls costing at least 10 pence per minute.
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The Crystal Cabins are distinguished by their glass bottoms, and are charged at a premium rate. Both sets of cabins circulate on the same cable, with passengers being segregated by queuing systems at both terminals.
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Telephone numbers of the form 0600-xxx-xxxx and 0609-xxx-xxxx are premium rate numbers. The 0609 series is for entertainment (fixed rate), while 0600 is for services (the rate depends on the particular number).
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Ofcom also reserves blocks of mobile phone (07700 900xxx), freephone (0808 157 0xxx), and premium rate (0909 879 0xxx) numbers for drama use. They also recently added a UK-wide range to the list (0306 999 0xxx).
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Costs of 190 calls for competitions involving chance are also often limited by state legislation to $0.55 per call. (In the previous numbering plan, 0055 numbers were limited to three bands: Premium Rate, Value Rate and Budget Rate, with per minute rates of $0.75, $0.60 and $0.40 respectively.) Other numbers beginning with 19 are used for premium-rate SMS services. These were originally trialled using the 188 prefix. These can range from a standard SMS cost (usually 25c), up to 55c for competition use, to several dollars for other uses, such as unique bid auctions.
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Numbers starting with 70, 30 and 40 are reserved for premium-rate services. 700, 701, 707 and 300 are "general" premium-rate services (usually charged per minute), 707 and 400 are assigned for tele-voting, mass-calls and so on (usually charged per call). Other numbers (702-706, 709, 301-309, 401-409) are reserved for future assignments. There are some other numbers in "shared costs" or "dial-up services" ranges, which are charged at a quite high rates (comparable with lower cost premium rates): 8015, 8016, 207, 208.
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There are still some services that rely upon premium-rate telephone numbers (e.g., 976 and 900 numbers) for billing purposes, although this practice has been largely abandoned due to the high rate of fraud associated with these lines and the inability to dial 900 and 976 lines from cellular phones. As a direct result, most telephone companies allow their customers to block outgoing calls to premium-rate telephone numbers. In 1996, the FCC changed regulations on 900 numbers to address abuse of these services by minors and fraud concerns.
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In June 2005, the channel was fined £18,000 by Ofcom for a number of offences, including the broadcasting of inappropriate material, using premium rate telephone services in programmes, and failing to ensure a clear distinction between programmes and advertisements.
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This procedure continues until the final day, when the viewers vote for who of the remaining participants they want to win the programme. Profits from premium-rate telephone votes are donated to charities such as Comic Relief, Centrepoint and Samaritans.
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All of these places moved to eight-digit local numbers ensuring sufficient local capacity for many decades (London saw a five-fold increase in capacity, for example). No other geographic area codes were affected. The other set of changes affected mobile, non-geographic and premium rate numbers, completing a series of steps first detailed almost a decade earlier. In the early-1990s, mobile, non-geographic and premium rate services had used nine digit numbers with various codes such as 0402, 0645, and 0898 scattered among the similar-looking geographic area codes such as 0384, 0562 and 0949.
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Originally planned in 1991 to take place in 1994, in 1992 the change was postponed until 1995. The PhONEday changes also released space for new geographic area codes beginning 02, which would come into use as part of the Big Number Change in 2000. The changes also allowed 10-digit numbers beginning 07, 08 and 09 to be used for mobile, non-geographic and premium-rate services, from 1997 onwards, with all remaining 9-digit mobile, non-geographic and premium-rate numbers from 02 to 09 being converted to 10 digits and moved into the 07, 08 and 09 prefixes in 2001.
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Premium numbers are in the 090xxxxxx-098xxxxxx range. Currently, only the 0900 block is used. . Prior to 2002, all numbers starting with 89 were premium rate numbers. Some of those number remain as local premium numbers, and the 02xx89xxxxx block remains reserved.
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A typical mobile phone number is written as 01M-XXX YYYY or 01M-XXXYYYY. Toll-free and local charge numbers are written as 1-800-XX-YYYY and 1-300-XX-YYYY respectively, while premium rate numbers are written as 600-XX-YYYY.
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Dedicated premium-rate lines nowadays begin with the prefix 0900, the infamous 0190 prefix having been terminated on December 31, 2005. However, some premium services also use lines with the prefix 0137, which is supposedly reserved for planned simultaneous call-in events, such as televoting.
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According to this article, "nearly 10% of all enquiries about premium rate services received by Icstis between September and November last year were specifically regarding television contests". Despite the criticisms, Quizmania became the first live and interactive quizshow to broadcast on analogue terrestrial television.
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Also, the early incarnation of 900 was not billed at premium-rate charges, but rather at regular long-distance charges based on the time of day and day of week that the call was placed. The number used for the radio program was one that was specially arranged by AT&T; Corporation, CBS Radio, and the White House, to be free to the calling party. However, by 1980, the 900 area code was completely restructured by AT&T; to be the premium-rate special area code which it remains today. At that time, many evening news agencies conducted "pulse polls" for $0.50 per call charges and displayed results on television.
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A month later, the Serious Fraud Office took the decision to review the evidence from Ofcom into the phone in scandal. An SFO spokeswoman said: "Following media reports and some complaints received from the general public about GMTV's use of premium rate telephone services, we are in touch with Ofcom although no SFO investigation is under way... Furthermore, the SFO will await the outcome of Ofcom's investigation into ITV's use of premium rate telephone services as highlighted in the Deloitte report.". On 10 March 2008, the Serious Fraud Office decided not to investigate the phone in scandal, stating it did not meet its criterion for an investigation.
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The Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA), known as PhonepayPlus until 1 November 2016, is the regulatory body for all premium rate phone-paid services in the United Kingdom. These are the content, goods and services that consumers can buy by charging the cost to their phone bills and pre-pay phone accounts. It was founded as the Independent Committee for the supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS) at the request of three network operators (British Telecom, Mercury Communications, and Vodafone) as a response to public criticism of their profiting from adult premium rate content. It re-branded itself as PhonepayPlus in June 2007.
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Missed calls have also been used for fraudulent purposes in a scam known as "Wangiri" or "one ring and cut" (from Japanese ). A scammer leaves a missed call using an international premium rate phone number, trying to lure the recipient into calling back and thus being charged.
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By the 1990s, commercials for premium-rate phone chat lines and edited versions of infomercials for firms such as Teledisc and Time–Life became more prominent. Overnight commercial breaks on the ITV network now usually consist of programme trailers and promos, and more recently, teleshopping commercials.
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Only contestants aged 18 or over were allowed to participate. Each entry cost a flat 55c charge to a premium-rate 1902 number when calling from a landline. On 18 March 2008, it was announced that The Mint would be axed. The final episode aired on 29 March 2008.
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Numbers starting with 900, 906, 909 and 976 are premium rate numbers. Other numbers beginning with "9" are allocated to certain organizations, such as 972 (Czech railways), 973 (Ministry of Defense), 974 (Ministry of Interior), 95x (other Ministries, government organizations, certain commercial subjects), 910 (VoIP nongeographic nomadic numbers).
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In Japan, premium rate telephone number service was known as "DIAL Q2" and began with the prefix 0990 followed by six digits. The digit following determined the service class. The prefix 0990-3 was for adult services. The prefixes 0990-5 and 0990-6 were used for other services.
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Smash Hits TV was also the name given to a spin-off TV show broadcast on Sky One in 2001. It used to broadcast general mainstream pop music on a "jukebox" system, where viewers had to call a premium rate telephone number to select a music video to play.
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Sex Station was a free-to-air programme that ran from 9p.m. to approximately 5:30a.m. each night. Viewers were encouraged to call a premium-rate telephone number and have a sexually-explicit conversation with a female presenter on-screen – these were not usually heard by the viewers.
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Phone hacking often involves unauthorized access to the voicemail of a mobile phone The unauthorised remote access to voicemail systems, such as exposed by the News International phone hacking scandal, is possible because of weaknesses in the implementations of these systems by telcos. Some PABX systems have a distant voicemail feature, which is accessed by entering a password when the initial greeting is being played. A hacker can call a direct dial number with voicemail, and then try to use the default password or guess it, or then select the "call back" function, and enter a premium rate number for the call back. The PABX calls back the premium rate line, confirming the password for the hacker.
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Diplomatic services, such as the US Embassy in London or the UK Embassy in Washington, have also charged premium rates for calls from the general public. In many European countries, for example France, Germany and the United Kingdom, it was common for organisations to operate customer service lines on premium-rate numbers using prefixes that fall outside the scope of the country's premium-rate number regulations. Therefore, in contrast to North America where customer service numbers are typically free of charge to the caller, consumers in Europe often used to pay a premium above the cost of a normal telephone call. The EU Consumer Rights Directive 2011/EU/83 came into force on 13 June 2014.
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The channel usually broadcast live, featuring two women on the main screen, with between two and four "sub-screens" on the right hand side showing additional women labelled "Babe number #". The women on the main screen encouraged viewers to call the (premium rate) telephone numbers to speak with one of the women in the sub- screens while they posed in a sexually provocative way. They also encouraged viewers to send text messages (again at a premium rate), which they might read out, and performed acts usually of a sexually orientated nature. The women on the main screen also took telephone calls on given nights and occasionally switched positions from the main screen to a sub-screen.
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This made them too accessible to children and sometimes telephone lines were hijacked to make calls to these services, then to be charged to the line subscribers who never made these calls by themselves. It was very customary to the aggressive advertising to write the costs of the services with small fonts, likely unreadable on the TV screen, then announcing the first 20 seconds free, writing the "free" word in bigger size, to induce the idea of the calls being all free. One of the most popular premium rate numbering class was (01)8989-xxx, mostly used for media services and TV games. Therefore, the premium rate numbers were mostly known as "8989".
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Advertising in newspapers, which had been common in the 1980s, was ended as a result of regulatory changes in 1994 which restricted advertisements to top-shelf adult magazines. At the same time rules were introduced requiring the user to pro-actively opt-in by requesting a pin number. This dramatically reduced the number of calls, and the proportion of the income generated by premium-rate telephone numbers which was associated with adult services fell from 18% in 1992 to 1% in 1996. Telephone numbering reform in the late 1990s led to 09 numbers being designated as premium rate, and numbers starting 098 have since been reserved for adult services, along with "legacy" numbers starting 0908 and 0909.
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In the Netherlands the then state-owned phone company PTT (now KPN) operated two platforms: Viditel and Videotex Nederland.Note: Detailed information on these services via Videotex Nederland and Viditel on the Dutch Wiki From the user perspective the main difference between these systems was that Viditel used standard dial-in phone numbers where Videotex used premium-rate telephone numbers. For Viditel you needed a (paid) subscription and on top of that you paid for each page you visited. For Videotex services you normally didn't need a subscription nor was there the need to authenticate: you paid for the services via the premium rate of the modem-connection based on connection time, regardless of the pages or services you retrieved.
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In 2009, Ofcom introduced the first harmonised European numbers for harmonised services of social value, allocating 116 123 to Samaritans. This number is free to call from mobiles and landlines. From 22 September 2015, Samaritans has promoted 116123 as their main number, replacing the premium rate 0845 number previously advertised.
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The number of female university students working for phone sex lines in the UK doubled between 2011 and 2013, according to a BBC-commissioned investigation. The industry's regulatory body Phone-paid Services Authority (formerly ICSTIC and PhonePayPlus) monitors and enforces specific community standards in terms of content and price for premium rate numbers. .
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As Radio Music Shop was an advert for its own services, it was governed by the Advertising Standards Authority and OFCOM, and had to abide by the ICSTIS code of practice due to its premium rate telephone number. As it did not carry any other commercials, it was not monitored by RAJAR.
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Rapid expansion of mobile and premium rate services quickly filled up number ranges on dialling codes that had not been allocated as STD codes, and there was a need to expand the number of dialling codes available in the future. Combining exchanges into ELNS and 'mixed' areas freed up a limited number of codes.
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After an in-depth study to better understand the market, Ofcom has changed its mind and is now proposing to drop the 060 migration concept and decided that the forced migration to 060 is no longer seen to be objectively justifiable. Premium rate and other such services were also banned from using 070 numbers.
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Zamano plc was an Internet and mobile technology company based in Dublin. The company decided in February 2017 to bring their premium rate SMS business lines to a close by the end of 2017. In September 2017 it was reported that the company, following a management buy-out, is considering investing in oil and gas exploration companies.
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Premium rate numbers begin with the prefix 15. These numbers provide a range of services from weather forecasting to adult dating. Adult type services shall only be provided using the access codes 1598 or 1599, with adult services of a sexual nature being restricted to the latter. Adult authentication is required from your network operator to access these numbers.
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Responsible for many different job functions; usually a team of rampers who report directly to him or her. Crew chiefs are responsible for ensuring that an aircraft has been loaded to the specifications of the load agent, and reporting any discrepancies to management. Usually this job has a premium rate of pay for the extra responsibilities.
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In 2008, SMS.ac was fined £250,000 by the UK premium rate regulator, PhonepayPlus, for operating misleading and unfair mobile- terminating text message services without giving proper pricing information, and barred from operating reverse-billed services in the UK until it became compliant with the PhonepayPlus compliance rules.Cases 702783/GL and 704922/GL at Phonepayplus.org.uk Following the ruling SMS.
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99 fee applied for each text message entry or premium rate phone call, along with standard text messaging rates added to the former. Entries on the network's website were free. Regardless of the method of entry, each entry had an equal chance of being selected. An entry did not necessarily guarantee an opportunity to appear on the show.
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Members are kept up-to- date by e-mail newsletters and text messages. A premium rate telephone news service alerts Irish and British astronomers to celestial events, ranging from flyovers of the International Space Station to meteor showers. Astronomy Ireland produces a monthly magazine called "Astronomy Ireland" called which is aimed mainly at amateur astronomers.Astronomy & Space Magazine Astronomy Ireland.
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From the launch of SmileTV until 1 July 2006, Quizworld was shown in the 1 am to 4 am timeslot. Quizworld was a premium rate telephone quiz service. An audio version of Quizworld was also broadcast on Top Up TV Active intermittently outside of SmileTV's broadcast hours. The audio on was accompanied by an on-screen MHEG graphic of the quiz.
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Russell John Dammerall Grant (born 5 February 1951) is a British astrologer and media personality. He has written several books on astrology, provides syndicated newspaper horoscopes and operates premium rate astrology phone lines. In March 2010, he began offering a "Pet Psychic" service. He is also the author of The Real Counties of Britain, and founded the Association of British Counties in 1989.
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Two months after the release of Actually, 31 people were killed in the King's Cross fire, which some interpreted as being foreseen by the song. Music magazines at the time though (such as Smash Hits) carried adverts to call premium rate phone lines to hear the song, and the money from the phone call would then go to the charity for fire victims.
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The defendant put scratchcards with its newspapers-- Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and The People. If the card came up with money, players called a premium rate number to see if the amount matched a mystery bonus cash amount. Mr O’Brien on 3 July 1995 got two sums of £50,000. 1472 other people did as well, because MGN had distributed too many by mistake.
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Within each of these groups some smaller number blocks were held aside for the older 9-digit mobile, non-geographic and premium rate services to move into at a later date. In 2000 and 2001, the Big Number Change put those final parts into place and they are detailed below. At the end of the process, there were no numbers in the UK beginning 03, 04 or 06. Additionally, the 02, 05, 07, 08 and 09 ranges were only lightly used. With PhONEday in 1995 and the Big Number Change, the UK had achieved huge spare capacity for new services and simple to understand prefix groupings: 01 and 02 for geographic numbers, 070 for personal numbers, 076 for pagers, 07624, 077, 078 and 079 for mobiles, 0500 and 080 for freephone, 084 and 087 for non-geographic and 090 for premium rate.
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Newspapers and magazines that take personal advertisements often provide a reply forwarding service; in this case, the text of the advert will include a unique box number and anyone wishing to reply to the advert sends or delivers their reply to the publisher's address in an envelope bearing that number. The publisher forwards replies in bulk to the advertiser at a given interval, for example each week. Another method of replying to Lonely Hearts adverts is via telephone; this took off with the introduction of premium-rate telephone numbers, providing an additional way for the publisher to generate money. The usual business model is for the advertiser to be enticed to place an advert free of charge (using an 0800 number or equivalent); those replying (and also the advertiser, when they want to check for any replies) must use a premium-rate line.
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A MHEG graphic was used as during the daytime and evening Top Up TV had no space on the platform for an additional videostream. Later Quizworld was replaced by two shows, Party People from 1-4am and SumoTV from 4-5am. By the time the channel closed, the entirety of the channel's output was a premium rate telephone chat-line service by the name of Party Girls.
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0055 numbers were previously premium-rate numbers, but have been moved into 190 numbers before 1999. The original toll-free area code was 008, but the format was changed to 1800. Directory assistance used various numbers: 013 for local calls, 0175 for other national calls, and 0103 for international. The two domestic numbers have been replaced with 1223, while 0103 was replaced with 1225.
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In 2002 Zamano partnered with RTÉ Interactive to launch a wireless SMS-based game called Showdown. Earlier that year the group had already released a number of games on the O2 mobile network. Later in 2002 Zamano acquired Avoca's interactive SMS business. This gave the company a stronger presence in the UK market as it provided 10 premium rate SMS short codes covering four UK mobile networks.
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Movil@ccess logo Movil@access was a Mexican company owned by Grupo Salinas that offered two-way paging services. The company was listed on the Bolsa Mexicana de Valores (BMV: MOVILAB) and its Chief Executive Officer was Gustavo Guzmán. Movil@ccess paging service covered Mexico and, through Arch Wireless, the United States by roaming. It also offered telemarketing services and Premium-rate telephone numbers.
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A loophole which allowed US (but not Canadian) providers in toll-free area code 800 to bill for calls by claiming the subscriber agreed to the charges has also been largely closed by more stringent regulation. SMS also has a feature for premium rate services. They generally do not use 900 numbers, but instead use five-digit and six- digit numbers, shorter than a telephone number.
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All 15x numbers have officially quoted rates, set by the prefix, although telecom providers can charge an additional fee for carrying the call. 151x numbers are charged on a per-call basis, all others on a per-minute basis. In general the prices increase as the prefix number increases, within the call type range. Comreg is a body which monitors the premium rate services industry in Ireland.
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Telephone companies typically offer blocking services to allow telephone customers to prevent access to these number ranges from their telephones. In some jurisdictions, telephone companies are required by law to offer such blocking. Adult chat lines (phone sex) and tech support are a very common use of premium-rate numbers. Other services include directory enquiries, weather forecasts, competitions and ratings televoting (especially relating to television shows).
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There are also reserved ranges for fictitious mobile, freephone and premium rate numbers. The Post Office even produced dial centre labels for use in advertisements and film/TV with a mythical exchange called VINcent plus four digits. The numerical equivalent of VIN was 846 and all the caller got was the speaking clock (i.e. 846 is also numerical equivalent of TIM) in the big city "Director" areas.
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Access to a channel protected using the Xtraview technology was granted by calling a premium rate telephone number. During the call, users were asked to give a number displayed on screen. In response, they were given a PIN to unlock the service. a similar system is in use by Babestation Xtreme, Red Hot TV, Television X and briefly by the now defunct TView on digital terrestrial television.
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In recent years, phone voting has become the main method of deciding popularity in talent shows. This has the advantage of expanding participation to include the full TV audience. It can also be used in programmes which do not have a studio audience. Phone voting can provide a significant source of additional revenue for the broadcasters from the use of premium rate phone numbers.
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976-EVIL is a 1988 horror film directed by Robert Englund, and co-written by Brian Helgeland. It stars Stephen Geoffreys, Jim Metzler, Maria Rubell, Pat O'Bryan, and Sandy Dennis. The film's title refers to the 976 telephone exchange, a now mostly defunct premium-rate telephone number system that was popular in the late 1980s, but has since been superseded by area code 900.
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BDO Stoy Hayward was criticised in their role as administrators for the collapsed Christmas hamper savings company Farepak. BDO Stoy Hayward used an 0870 premium rate phone service to provide information for victims of Farepak's collapse in 2016. They were initially also accused by The Observer of taking a share of the call revenue to pay for the administration; this accusation was later withdrawn.
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The only way for viewers to vote during this series was by calling a premium rate telephone number. It had initially been announced that Facebook voting would be in effect for this series but due to technical issues during Big Brother 13, Channel 5 cancelled these plans. The public voted for who they wanted to save and they voted for their winner in the final two days.
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A distant reading, "traveling clairvoyance", or "remote perception" can be conducted without the reader ever meeting the client. This includes letters, telephone, text messaging, email, chat, and webcam readings. Correspondence readings are usually done via letters, later emails and filling in special forms on psychic websites. Telephone readings are live readings where both psychic and client hear each other by connecting via premium rate telephone line.
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His career began in the mid-1990s through the ClubCall network, a series of premium rate phone lines containing club information and commentaries. He joined BBC Radio York where he covered rugby league, cricket and football. He then moved to commercial station Sun FM in Sunderland and then to Metro Radio in Newcastle. Whilst at Metro Radio he started commentating on Sunderland's matches alongside summariser Eric Gates.
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Other areas have different fictitious telephone numbers. To be effective, it must not be possible to change a fictitious telephone number into a real one by adding or changing a few digits. Usually, the number must be unassigned in every area code within the numbering plan. Outside NANPA, special fictitious telephone numbers for mobile phones, premium-rate numbers or toll free numbers are sometimes assigned as well.
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On 18 September 2009, 2ergo were fined £80,000 by PhonepayPlus, regulator for premium rate phone-paid services, for sending misleading unsolicited marketing text messages. This was the 17th such complaint upheld where 2ergo was the service provider. In June 2011, 2ergo announced they had put a hold on some of their SMS messaging services due to PhonePayplus Regulations. This resulted in the company issuing a profit warning.
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Booth is a presenter on Eat Cinema, interviewing A-list Hollywood stars on The Buzz and hosting her own show First Night Bites. She also hosted the now defunct Quiz Night Live, a premium rate call-in quiz show, shown on satellite/Freeview channel Ftn. She presents The Match on the XLeague.tvchannel. In 2007, she joined Zone Horror where she works as a presenter and continuity announcer.
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A range of such payment methods have been used, including wire transfers, premium-rate text messages, pre-paid voucher services such as paysafecard, and the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. In May 2020, vendor Sophos reported that the global average cost to remediate a ransomware attack (considering downtime, people time, device cost, network cost, lost opportunity and ransom paid) was $761,106. Ninety-five percent of organizations that paid the ransom had their data restored.
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In 2007, The UK premium rate regulator, PhonepayPlus (formerly ICSTIS) concluded a public consultation on anonymous SMS, in which they stated they were not averse to the operation of such services. However, in 2008 PhonePayPlus introduced new regulation covering anonymous SMS, requiring anonymous SMS service providers to send a follow-up message to the recipient stating that a spoofed SMS has been sent to them, and operate a complaints helpline.
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When Lisa complains to Marge that Homer does not share her interests, Marge suggests doing something he likes, so Lisa watches a televised football game with him. After being cheated by a premium rate betting advice hotline, a desperate Homer asks Lisa to pick a winner. She picks the Miami Dolphins, so Homer calls Moe's Tavern to place a $50 bet. Homer and Lisa celebrate the Dolphins' victory.
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In 1998, Tuvalu began deriving revenue from the use of its area code for premium- rate telephone numbers and from the commercialisation of its ".tv" Internet domain name, which is now managed by Verisign until 2021. Tuvalu also generates income from postage stamps by the Tuvalu Philatelic Bureau, and from the Tuvalu Ship Registry. The Tuvalu Trust Fund was established in 1987 by the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.
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In Indonesia, premium numbers begin with 0809 and are marketed by Telkom as Japati, an acronym for Jaringan Pintar Nasional (National Smart Network). Due to the number's association with adult services (Telkom's dial-up Internet service, Telkomnet Instan at 080989999 being a major exception) premium-rate phone services have come under public scrutiny and regulatory crackdown, most notably in May 2015 following rash of spam text messages enticing mobile phone users to dial them.
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All appropriate terms and conditions are on display. :4.The Presenter of the service also informs viewers of the pricing which is clearly on a per call basis. The fact that not all calls get through to the studio is also made clear. :5.Full terms and conditions, help lines and other information are available via a non-premium rate number which is displayed on the screen and further, are available at www.playtvireland.com. :6.
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Modified versions of Xafecopy were also identified to have the capability of sending SMS from the device to premium-rate phone numbers, deleting incoming SMS from the mobile network provider, and hiding alerts about balance deduction by reading incoming messages and checking for words like "subscription". It is also capable of switching a user from WiFi connection to mobile data, as WAP billing works only when the user is connected to a mobile connection.
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On 10 March 2014, Bid rebranded into 'Shop at Bid' - a new format including a fixed price dynamic that ended the falling price approach. A new premium rate number was introduced which cost 20p per minute as opposed to the previous £1.53 (per call). The buying process changed to allow viewers to speak to an advisor after purchase and did not require a call back. This change lasted just over one month.
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In the UK, most call-through access services use non-geographic revenue share 0843, 0844, 0871 and 0872 numbers or premium rate 0905, 0906 and 0911 numbers. The revenue share or "service charge" part of the price paid is set by the terminating telecoms company. This in turn depends on the exact number dialled. The lowest rates are on 084 numbers, higher on 087 numbers and the highest rates are on 09 numbers.
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Q specialised in indie, rock and alternative. In common with other Box Television channels, Q was originally a jukebox channel, where music video selections made were by the viewers using premium rate phone lines; however this element was dropped in 2004. It is based on format of the Q brand from Bauer which exists in Q Magazine and Q Radio. Q closed on 3 July 2012, when it was replaced by Heat.
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Quiz Call was launched as a standalone participation television channel in August 2005 on the Freeview and NTL platforms, and launched on the Sky Digital platform shortly afterwards. The show encourages viewers to enter by calling a premium-rate telephone number or for free via their website. On 22 April 2006, the channel made its début on analogue terrestrial television when it aired overnight on Five. In June 2006, Quiz Call had a slight revamp.
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BSNL Mobile is a major provider of GSM network under brand name CellOne all over India. It has wide network coverage in both urban and rural areas of India. It has over 120.42 million customers across India. BSNL Mobile offers prepaid, postpaid services and value-added services such as Free Phone Service (FPH), India Telephone Card (Prepaid card), Account Card Calling (ACC), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Tele-voting, Premium Rate Service (PRM).
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However, having access via the mobile operator is very hard since the mobile operators sell it at a premium rate, if at all. Although GPS- enabled devices are not prevalent yet, industry experts show that consumers are demanding mobile local search now, with an expected growth of 91% from 2007 to 2011. As a consequence, there is a gap in this opportunity that can be cleverly addressed by mobile operators and service providers with access to the SS7 layer.
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Torquil Riley-Smith (full name Torquil Silvanus Matthew Septimus Riley-Smith, born 1962) is founder of the British radio station LBH, Britain's first gay radio station. Riley-Smith started his first business in 1987, supplying Premium Rate telephone services to TV companies and Oracle Teletext. Riley- Smith in 1996 started "The Number for Life Company" as one of three Vodafone licencees selling and marketing 07000 prefix telephone numbers. This business was sold to "The Personal Number Company" in 1998.
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Channel Five drops Trisha Goddard guardian.co.uk, 9 January 2009 Until March 2007, the station screened quiz show BrainTeaser which was presented by Alex Lovell. After four and a half years, BrainTeaser was withdrawn, following the revelation that production staff were faking winners on the programme's premium rate call-in competition. Other game shows have since been aired in daytime, including a new version of Going for GoldThe unholy power of the Going for Gold revival guardian.co.
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NY Times. 21 July 2005 The case was settled in 2006 with Sprint agreeing not to send customers Sprint advertisements via SMS. SMS expert Acision (formerly LogicaCMG Telecoms) reported a new type of SMS malice at the end of 2006, noting the first instances of SMiShing (a cousin to e-mail phishing scams). In SMiShing, users receive SMS messages posing to be from a company, enticing users to phone premium-rate numbers or reply with personal information.
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In 2003, similar to Video Hits on Australian television, TV3 aired a music video show called Music3 (pronounced as "Music Cubed") where viewers selected their favourite music videos from a list shown on 3Text and occasionally on screen. The show aired every night between 01:00 to 04:00 and running from July to December. Viewers were invited to send text messages to the show and to send in requests via a premium rate phone number.
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However, until the implementation of the current numbering plan, all the 018xx and 0xx89 numbers remained unchanged. A special call barring service has been introduced to prevent fraudulent calls to premium rate services. Even today there still are local numbers starting with 89, but only for internet dial-up, and they are migrating to the new prefix 0870. Usually mobile phone users and abroad callers could not and cannot access no-charge or extra-charge numbers.
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As of April 2012, the maximum premium rate is 10.3% (for construction work and the like) and the minimum is 0.3% (for work that is mostly clerical). 0.005% is added to the above premium to fund benefits for asbestos-induced diseases.JETRO website 4.9.1 Labour and social insurance systems Retrieved on June 16, 2012 For example, for an office worker earning 250,000 yen per month the premium the employer would have to pay would be around 750 yen.
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Approximately 50,000 Oregon employers and just under 600,000 workers (35 percent of Oregon's workforce) are insured by SAIF.Company information The company employs more than 900 people in seven offices around the state. Due in part to workplace safety efforts, Oregon's pure premium rate for workers' compensation insurance either declined or stayed the same for 26 of the past 28 years. Oregon officials estimate that has resulted in cumulative savings to Oregon employers of approximately $20 billion.
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In August 2010, Russian authorities arrested nine individuals connected to a ransomware Trojan known as WinLock. Unlike the previous Gpcode Trojan, WinLock did not use encryption. Instead, WinLock trivially restricted access to the system by displaying pornographic images and asked users to send a premium-rate SMS (costing around US$10) to receive a code that could be used to unlock their machines. The scam hit numerous users across Russia and neighbouring countries—reportedly earning the group over US$16 million.
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In the year 1912, the Life Insurance Companies Act and the Provident Fund Act were passed to regulate the insurance business. The Life Insurance Companies Act, 1912 made it necessary that the premium-rate tables and periodical valuations of companies should be certified by an actuary. However, the disparity still existed as discrimination between Indian and foreign companies. The oldest existing insurance company in India is the National Insurance Company, which was founded in 1906, and is still in business.
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The principle behind this service is exactly the same principle as behind that run on all other broadcasters in Ireland which use Premium Rate numbers to enter a competition. It is universal practice that a winner is then selected from the number of individuals who will have got the correct answer. This is a particularly prevalent form of competition mechanic when prizes such as cars, holidays etc., are given away on programmes such as The Late Late Show, etc. :9.
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Instead of E.164/2002, another more ambitious numbering plan was proposed. In this plan the prefix 0 was discarded, and the area codes were defined differently, with 20 to 49 for geographic areas, 50 to 59 reserved, 60-69 for nationwide numbering, 70-79 for mobile services, 80-89 for shared- cost and toll-free numbers, and 90 for premium-rate services. The plan was not implemented because it required too many phone number and prefix changes, with associated high costs.
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Trade credit insurance usually covers a portfolio of buyers and pays an agreed percentage of an invoice or receivable that remains unpaid as a result of protracted default, insolvency or bankruptcy. Policy holders must apply a credit limit on each of their buyers for the sales to that buyer to be insured. The premium rate reflects the average credit risk of the insured portfolio of buyers. In addition, credit insurance can also cover single transactions or trade with only one buyer.
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A deposit premium is the amount of money required by an insurer to initiate a policy whose premiums aren't fixed, but are determined after the policy term by multiplying a premium rate by the amount of sales, payroll, or some other metric. The deposit amount is typically the estimate of what will be the final premium. It is common for the deposit premium to also be the minimum premium - a guaranteed minimum amount that applies even if the final calculated premium is less.
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Premium-rate film services may broadcast content equivalent to a BBFC 15 certificate at any time of day provided a PIN-protected system is in place to restrict access to those authorised to view it. The broadcasting of pornography with a BBFC R18 certificate is not permitted. In 2010 Ofcom revoked the licences of four free- to-air television channels for promoting adult chat services during daytime hours and transmitting content that was too sexually explicit. The companies involved were fined £157,250.
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Babestation is an adult chat programme which has aired on television in the United Kingdom since 2002. Since 2015, Babestation has also had a complementary website that includes more options than those available on the TV channel. The television version was the first show of its kind in the UK allowing viewers to communicate live with female presenters via a premium-rate telephone number or text messaging. It is broadcast daily, and since 2006 has had a dedicated channel on Sky.
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In August 2010, Kaspersky Lab reported the trojan Trojan- SMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer.a.Android Virus Security Lab This was the first SMS malware that affected Google's Android operating system, and which sent SMS messages to premium rate numbers without the owner's knowledge, accumulating huge bills. Currently, various antivirus software companies. Meanwhile, operating system developers try to curb the spread of infections with quality control checks on software and content offered through their digital application distribution platforms, such as Google Play or Apple's App Store.
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190x (not to be confused with 0198) is the prefix for premium rate services (e.g. recorded information, competition lines, psychics, phone sex, etc.). (Prior to the introduction of 8-digit local numbers, the prefix was 0055.) 190 numbers incur a rate as charged by the provider – either at a per-minute rate (limited at $5.50 per minute) or a fixed rate (up to $38.50 per call). The latter method is most often used for fax-back services, where a timed charge is not appropriate.
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At the same time rules were introduced requiring the user to pro-actively opt-in by requesting a pin number. This dramatically reduced the number of calls, and the proportion of the income generated by premium-rate telephone numbers which was associated with adult services fell from 18% in 1992 to 1% in 1996. During the 1990s many companies began to re-route their traffic abroad in an attempt to circumvent the regulations. The industry took to operating from 40 countries worldwide, commonly Guyana and the Caribbean.
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The original PlayMania was a game show in which home viewers were the contestants. American residents 18 or older could enter the contest by text messaging for a small fee, or using the network's website to enter free. From January to April 2007 a premium-rate phone number was available to use as an entry method, as well. Within a few moments, a contestant was notified whether or not his or her entry had been chosen (at random) to proceed to another random selection process.
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'' Jamba (formerly Jamba!), operating under the name Jamster in China, Brazil, and Italy (Formerly in the United States) is a premium-rate monthly SMS mobile phone content provider, based in Berlin, Germany. Jamba's main line of business was the creation and marketing of ringtones for mobile phones. It is perhaps best known for the ringtone characters Sweety the Chick, Crazy Frog, Anna Blue and Schnuffel Bunny. The company also sold insurance for mobile phones and home electronics and ran online gaming and online dating services.
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Government News. According to the Communique the basic principles are: # Micro renewable generation to receive fair and reasonable value for exported energy # Any premium rate to be jurisdictionally determined, transitional and considered for public funding # Ministerial Council for Energy (MCE) to continue to advance fair treatment of small renewables # FiT policy to be consistent with previous COAG agreements (particularly the Australian Energy Market Agreement) These principles do not appear to support a gross feed in tariff as exists in Germany, but rather a net feed in tariff.
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There are certain closed networks redefining area code 55 and assigning such numbers for subscribers or machines inside the network, but these are non-standard and non-dialable from outside the network. Telephone numbers starting with the digits 555 are assigned to subscribers as ordinary numbers. Hungarian taxi company Tele5 Taxi uses 555-5555 as a vanity number, while at least one company specializing in vanity numbers sells cell phone numbers starting with the digits 555 for a premium rate, capitalizing on their fame in American movies.
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Phone sex lines appeared in the UK in the 1980s using premium-rate telephone numbers for adult services with sexual content, with many of the lines playing tape recordings. The prefixes used at the time included the well-known 0891 and 0898. The phone sex market is closely linked to the pornographic magazine market, and advertising for such services often provides a vital element of a magazine's revenue. Up to a quarter of the page length of some magazines may be devoted to such advertisements.
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One of the first appointed editors was radio reporter Ian Holding, one of the current owners of the ClubCall business. In 1991, BT sold ClubCall to bookmaker Ladbrokes at a time when the premium rate telephone market was flourishing. Ladbrokes saw it as an opportunity to develop relationships with football clubs and to associate its brand with football which was becoming an increasingly important betting medium. The company operated ClubCall at a time when interest in football was heightened by the formation of the Premier League in 1992.
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She was a member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and of the Professional Conduct Committee of the Bar Council. She was a Commissioner for the Marshall Scholarships until December 2006. She was on the Regulatory Decision Committee of the Financial Services Authority from 2001 to 2007, and was a member of the ICSTIS PhonepayPlus Committee (which regulates premium rate telephony) until November 2008. She chaired The Animal Procedures Committee, a body that advises the British Home Secretary on matters related to animal experimentation in the UK, until its abolition in 2012.
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During the original production, members of the public who wished to apply for the game show were provided with four options to choose from – calling/texting a premium-rate number, submitting an application via the show's ITV website, using a system of £1 credits, or taking part in a casting audition, which were held at various locations around the UK. Once an application was made, production staff selected an episode's contestants through a combination of random selection, and a potential contestant's ability to answer a set of test questions based on general knowledge.
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Calls to these numbers incur an Access Charge of up to 65p per minute levied by the caller's telephone provider, and a Service Charge of 13p per minute levied by Hospedia. These are Controlled Premium Rate Services (CPRS) regulated by the Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA). Hospedia has explored provision of patient surveys through their bedside terminals. This however has still to be proved as a successful way of conducting surveys as pilot schemes until now how proved slightly unbalanced as only a certain category of patients are able to use the bedside terminal.
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Prefix 00 was reserved for international calls, while prefix 9 was assigned to special numbers, such as 9-1-1. Toll-free numbers start with 800 followed by 7 digits while premium-rate numbers start with 900 followed by 7 digits. Before 1994, all phone numbers in Costa Rica were six digits long. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad, which at that time had the monopoly on telecommunications, introduced a system in which the telephone numbers in every province were assigned a prefix to make them 7 digits long.
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The channel showcased a range of pop centred on chart hits and current favourites. Originally, the vast majority of music videos were selected by viewers by means of calling a premium-rate telephone number, however the policy was abandoned with the channel playing an automated selection of videos and countdown shows presented by celebrities and singers past and present. Programming was often themed to coincide with events such as St. Patrick's Day and Christmas. The channel was available free-to-air on the British digital terrestrial television service Freeview on channel 18.
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The programme returned to The London Studios from BBC Television Centre. Following news of premium rate phone in scandals, The Organ Game was suspended (as it relied on people calling in to enter the game). On the first episode of the new series (broadcast on 17 September 2007), Paul went over to play The Organ Game near the end of the show to find it tied up and him unable to use it. He invited viewers to telephone or e-mail Channel 4 bosses to allow him to play the phone-in game.
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Premium numbers in The Netherlands start with 0900 (general purpose), 0906 (erotic entertainment) and 0909 (games and lotteries) followed by four or seven digits. When one dials such a nulnegenhonderd nummer it is enforced by law that the caller gets informed about the per minute rate. The Opta is the governing body that regulates premium rate services in the Netherlands. Starting June 2014 any 0900 number used for customer service purposes is regulated at a maximum surcharge per call of €1 on top of the normal tariff for calling.
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He sat as a Deputy High Court Judge on housing and judicial review cases until 1996. Blom-Cooper is well known for his regulatory work, particularly as Chair of the Press Council now the Press Complaints Commission and later as the founding chair of the premium rate telephony regulator, ICSTIS, later PhonepayPlus and now the Phone-paid Services Authority. In 1992 he was appointed by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland as the first Independent Commissioner for the Holding Centres. He held this appointment until April 1999.
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Quizmania is a British interactive game show. The show was devised by Chuck Thomas, Debbie King, and Simone Thorogood and produced by Fremantle Media for Information TV (between August 2005 and March 2006) and ITV (between December 2005 and January 2007). Similar to other premium-line call-in shows, viewers on the TV version of Quizmania were encouraged to phone a premium-rate number in order to provide an answer to a quiz question. Quizmania's last ever television broadcast was made on 14 January-15 January 2007, presented by Greg Scott and Debbie King.
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Most of the major controversies involving participatory television have occurred in the United Kingdom, where these shows have been late-night staples on some channels. Quiz channels have received large number of complaints due to use of premium-rate telephone numbers, "impossible" questions and gambling. Often it is far from clear how it is possible to reach the suggested 'right' answer. Some people who are heavily involved in the quiz industry in the UK have complained about the standard and ambiguity of the questions used on the programme.
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With phone payments, consumers are billed via their regular telephone number, whereby the charges are added to their phone bill. Premium-rate telephone numbers or 900 numbers are telephone numbers for telephone calls during which certain services are provided, and for which prices higher than normal are charged. Mobile payments is a new and rapidly adopted alternative payment method – especially in Asia and Europe. Instead of paying with cash, check or credit cards, a consumer can use a mobile phone to pay for wide range of services and goods.
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A tipster is someone who regularly provides information (tips) on the likely outcomes of sporting events on internet sites or special betting places. In the past tips were bartered for and traded but nowadays, thanks largely to the Internet and premium rate telephone lines, they are usually exchanged for money, and many tipsters operate websites. Some of them are free and some require subscription. A tip in gambling is a bet suggested by a third party who is perceived to be more knowledgeable about that subject than the bookmaker who sets the initial odds.
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From 2009, the ability of organisations using 0870 numbers to receive a proportion of the call cost was removed. However, the cost of calling such numbers continued to vary considerably; some landline tariffs now included 0870 numbers in inclusive allowances, while mobile operators charged a premium for calling such numbers. Many organisations changed to using other 084 and 087 numbers through which they could continue to receive an income from call costs. From 2008, the higher-rate 0871 and 0872 numbers began being regulated by the premium-rate telecoms regulator, PhonepayPlus.
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EMAP took ownership of these shares in 1997, and purchased the shareholding held by the US company VJN Inc, which had then become TCI Music and then Liberty Digital. The US version of the channel was sold to MTVN in 2000. EMAP retained ownership, receiving profits made from music video selections, which are made by the viewers using premium rate phone lines, as well as the small fees from BSkyB for being an encrypted channel. Each week, a new playlist would be released and would generally contain new or current music videos.
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Calling line identity (CLI) localisation is the process of presenting a localised calling line identity to the recipient of a telephone call. CLI localisation is used by various organisations, including call centres, debt collectors and insurance companies. CLI localisation allows companies to increase their contact rate by increasing the chance that a called party will answer a phone call. Because a localised CLI is displayed on the called party's device, the call is perceived as local and recognisable to the caller rather than a withheld, unknown or premium rate number.
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Premium-rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers for telephone calls during which certain services are provided, and for which prices higher than normal are charged. Unlike a normal call, part of the call charge is paid to the service provider, thus enabling businesses to be funded via the calls. While the billing is different, calls are usually routed the same way they are for a toll-free telephone number, being anywhere despite the area code used. These telephone numbers are usually allocated from a national telephone numbering plan in such a way that they are easily distinguished from other numbers.
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Phone sex lines appeared in the UK in the 1980s using premium-rate telephone numbers for adult services with sexual content, with many of the lines playing tape recordings. The phone sex market in the UK is closely linked to the pornographic magazine market, and advertising for such services often provides a vital element of a magazine's revenue. Up to a quarter of the page length of some magazines may be devoted to such advertisements. Advertising in newspapers, which had been common in the 1980s, was ended as a result of regulatory changes in 1994 which restricted advertisements to top-shelf adult magazines.
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It didn't cost much but if they are getting numerous calls in each night that amounts to a huge take for them and I feel it is a rip off. I am surprised that any TV station would be operating like this and would be allowing it to go on. TV3 advised viewers who played the game to go to RegTel the self- regulatory body of premium rate phone number in Ireland with any complaints. RegTel only require the phone company to advise users that they have reached their €60 limit they do not require that they prevent players from continuing to play.
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On 25 September 2009 the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland met to review 20 complaints made to it by individuals in relation to Play TV. Of the 20 15 were upheld, 1 was rejected, 1 was determined to be invalid and 2 remained under investigation. TV3's full response to each of the complaints were as follows: \- :1.Play TV as a programme has been notified to all appropriate authorities and received all appropriate consents (including that of the Premium Rate Service Regulator – RegTel). :2.The programme is run in accordance with all appropriate Codes of Practice and Regulatory Consents. :3.
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Sometimes, at a premium rate, one could call a third country instead of the home country. Before home country direct services were established, callers trying to call home were limited in their ability to make a call. While a few countries allowed reciprocal collect calls, most only allowed such calls to Canada or the United States, often at person-to-person rates, and even fewer nations permitted calls using a foreign telephone calling card. Many countries did not permit charge transfers at all, forcing the caller to pay directly to the service provider at the point the call originated.
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In 2006 regulators ruled that one of the channels owned by TVC had deliberately kept callers on premium-rate telephone numbers waiting longer than necessary. The company was fined by ICSTIS, the channel was forced to close, TVC's share price fell by over 50% as a result and TVC warned that it may no longer be viable. TV Commerce Holdings plc became a shell company known as Gemstones of Africa in 2009. In 2013 he published a book, The Millionaire Dropout which was listed in the New York Times list of bestselling books and USA Today bestselling books.
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Clem was also involved in an endorsement deal with an Isuzu car dealership, the Bubba the Love Sponge Limousines service, a personalized paging service called the Air Bubba Beeping Network, and a premium-rate telephone line. In June 1995, Clem released an adult-oriented home video, Let Your Chia Run Wild, described as a "private collection of events documenting a lifestyle that some can only dream of" and featuring some nudity. Clem regretted his decision to release it, and WFLZ requested Clem cease its distribution. In April 1996, he opened Bubba's Beach Club, a dance club and nightspot in Ybor City.
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Even when traceable, they give out long and winding procedures for procuring the reward (real or unreal) and that too with the impending huge cost of transportation and tax or duty charges. The origin of such SMS messages is often from fake websites/addresses. A recent (mid-2011) innovation is the use of a Premium Rate 'call back' number (instead of a website or email) in the SMS. On calling the number, the victim is first reassured that 'they are a winner' and then subjected to a long series of instructions on how to collect their 'winnings'.
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ICSTIS raised concern that players were unaware that they would be charged for each call regardless of whether the player got through to the studio or not.TV quiz calls face charges probe by BBC News, published October 10, 2006, retrieved October 10, 2006. On March 9, 2007 in the wake of a number of technical problems and controversies over premium rate phone-ins on television shows and quiz channels, ICSTIS warned television companies that any illegal operating would be investigated by the police. ICSTIS also announced measures to bring in licensing to restore public confidence in competitions.
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In 2007, a series of scandals broke out involving allegations of phone-in segments of television programmes and quiz channels conning viewers. Richard & Judy on Channel 4 were accused of encouraging viewers to enter the 'You Say We Pay' segment after the winner had been picked. The competition was indefinitely suspended soon afterwards and was later cancelled permanently. Channel 4 Racing was also affected after a software glitch allowed callers to enter a competition even though the competition had ended. ITV suspended all programmes involving premium rate phone-ins on 5 March 2007, including its quiz channel ITV Play.
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Following the success of previous seasons' votes, the club's away kit was the subject of a fans' vote. Three options were given, with fans invited to text a premium rate number with their favourite option. The winning design was a light blue and black striped shirt, which received 47% of the vote, narrowly beating a light and navy design with a curve detail which received 41%. The design is intended to remain for two seasons, and new manufacturers Erreà have confirmed they will go ahead with the fans' choice of design rather than adapting it to one of their standard designs.
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The Chiltern Radio Network also set up a satellite news service as a direct competitor to IRN called Network News. The service ran from 5 July 1991 until 1 April 1996 and supplied hourly national news bulletins and audio cuts to stations within the Chiltern Radio Network. Other clients included Virgin Radio, Radio Luxembourg, Choice FM in London and Birmingham, Spectrum Radio, Radio XL, Sunshine 855, Radio Maldwyn, Wear FM and Belfast City Radio. Bulletins were transmitted via the Astra satellite and copy was sent to stations via fax and latterly a premium rate fax-back service.
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Richard Ayre became a founder member of the board of the Food Standards Agency which pioneered open access with web casts of board meetings and fully published documentation. He was Chair of Article 19 (2003-2005), and was Freedom of Information Adjudicator for the Law Society (2001-2015). He led Ofcom's 2007 enquiry into abuse of premium rate telephone services in television programmes. He conducted a review of broadcasting in Kuwait following the invasion by Iraq and following the allied invasion he chaired the Editorial Review Board for Al Mirbad - the first independent Iraqi-run radio and TV station.
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Members of the public then called a Premium- rate telephone number if their home or mobile phone number contained two or more of these digits. Callers were entered into a prize draw, the winner of which would compete in the final round for a prize of up to £350,000. Throughout the show, Mulhern would also perform a number of magic tricks or illusions, assisted by some of that week's celebrity guests. While the initial public phone-in was taking place, Mulhern would also perform a featured grand illusion, again assisted by one or more of that week's celebrity guests.
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Under the editorship of Chris Hunt, the magazine published its first issue in July 1988, six months before The Source began in newsletter form. Prior to the first issue, the magazine's parent company had run a premium rate 0898 telephone information line using the same name, presented by Radio 1 DJ Dave Pearce. It invited MCs to call and record their own rhyme after listening to the best rhyme of the previous week. HHC's early issues were its biggest selling and saw Hunt bringing together a talented group of writers and photographers, including Ekow Eshun, Malu Halasa and Vie Marshall.
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In August 2008, the show began broadcasting from 8.00pm showing softcore pornography until 10.00pm. The show also ran on Television X 2 and Television X 4 from 9.00pm until 11.00pm (11.15pm on Friday and Saturday) and then continued on TVX4 for 15 minutes, after which it began broadcasting encrypted hardcore pornography (consistent with the R18 certificate). This section was used as a means of encouraging viewers to subscribe to the Television X package. The channel was also available online, it was significantly cheaper to call the premium-rate telephone number than other televised sex line channels.
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Swiss telephone numbers are ten digits long, and usually written 0AA BBB BB BB where 0AA is the national destination code and BBB BB BB is the subscriber number. The entire number must always be dialed, including the leading 0, even if calling within a local area, therefore the national destination code is not separated from the subscriber number. According to international convention, numbers are sometimes written +41 AA BBB BB BB to include the country calling code. Certain nationwide destination codes, such as for toll-free or premium-rate telephone numbers, are written 0800 BBB BBB or 0900 BBB BBB.
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Similar to the original series in the United Kingdom, members of the public completed a qualification quiz which opened at the start of each series at various times in the year (also known as "registration period"). Applicants would send a premium-rate SMS to a designated number, and answer a question by responding. Contestants would complete a series of interviews before being randomly selected from a pool of other hopeful contestants and appearing on the set in Fastest Finger First. In order to be eligible, contestants must be residents and citizens of India and at least 18 years of age.
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Similar to the original airing in Great Britain, members of the public completed a qualification quiz which opened at the start of each season at various times in the year (also known as "registration period"). Would-be contestants would send a premium-rate SMS to a designated number and answer a question by responding. Contestants would complete a series of interviews before being randomly selected from a pool of other hopeful contestants and appearing on the stage in Fastest Finger First. In order to be eligible, contestants must be residents and citizens of Nepal and at least 18 years of age.
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A public holiday (also known as "stats" or "general" or "statutory" holiday) in Botswana is legislated through the parliament of Botswana. Most workers, public and private, are entitled to take the day off with regular pay. However, some employers may require employees to work on such a holiday, but the employee must either receive a day off in lieu of the holiday or must be paid at a premium rate – usually 1½ (known as "time and a half") or twice (known as "double time") the regular pay for their time worked that day, in addition to the holiday pay.
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In determining premiums and premium rate structures, insurers consider quantifiable factors, including location, credit scores, gender, occupation, marital status, and education level. However, the use of such factors is often considered to be unfair or unlawfully discriminatory, and the reaction against this practice has in some instances led to political disputes about the ways in which insurers determine premiums and regulatory intervention to limit the factors used. An insurance underwriter's job is to evaluate a given risk as to the likelihood that a loss will occur. Any factor that causes a greater likelihood of loss should theoretically be charged a higher rate.
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Twice a year, Goldfinger drives his vintage Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost car from England to Enterprises Auric. Bond learns that Goldfinger makes dead drops of gold bars for SMERSH along the way, and that his car's bodywork is 18-carat (75%), solid white gold under the ploy that the added weight is armour plating. Once at Enterprises Auric, the bodywork is stripped off, melted and made into airplane seats for a company that Enterprises Auric is heavily invested in. The plane(s) are then flown to India where the seats are melted down again into gold bars and sold for a much higher premium rate—100 to 200 per cent profit.
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In 1995 the income generated in this way was $2 billion. The regulations also led to an increase in the use of live call-back services paid by credit cards, which did not fall under the regulator's jurisdiction because they did not use premium-rate numbers. By 2009 the proportion of the UK population that had used phone sex lines was 45%, according to a survey by Durex. By 2013 there were over 2,000 phone sex companies in the UK. Most phone sex workers are recruited through word of mouth or the internet as the companies are widely forbidden from advertising in mass media.
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While the show was on air, viewers were encouraged to call a premium rate number in order to give solutions to puzzles being put to them by the presenters. However, there was no guarantee that callers would get through to the studio, although they were still charged the full cost of the call. According to TV3, there was a limit of 50 calls per night or 300 calls per month that could be made by any one person. However the accuracy of this statement seems to be in some doubt, as one person has claimed to have made 170 calls in one night at a cost of €370.
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The United Kingdom premium phone regulator, ICSTIS has reported an increase in complaints about quiz shows and channels. A BBC News article stated that "nearly 10% of all enquiries about premium rate services received by ICSTIS between September and November last year were specifically regarding television contests". On October 10, 2006, ICSTIS announced that it would be investigating participation television channels after complaints it received from the public into concerns that players are paying too much to enter the quizzes by phone. ICSTIS also said that it wanted callers to know how much each call would cost them and the odds of winning any prize.
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By the end of its run, Brain Battle aired live in all time zones, starting at 11:00 AM EST, running for one hour. Viewers could enter by calling on a premium rate telephone line, sending a text message, or entering on the show's Web site for free. Initially in between calls, a multi-round game was played with 2 in-studio contestants, usually various forms of word puzzles, but in-studio games were later dropped, with the show only consisting of phone-in games after it. The show's staff also maintained a group on Facebook, encouraging users to interact live with the crew of the show.
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In 2008, Leicester City NHS Trust looked into their usage of telephone numbers and revealed a complex set of issues to be solved, some of which were fixed later in the year. Enfield Primary Care Trust wrote to all 62 surgeries in the borough warning them that it does not approve of them using premium rate 0844 numbers. It was revealed that Mid-Yorkshire hospital trust had made more than £80,000 from use of a 0844 telephone number in two years. The Department of Health published a consultation at the end of 2008 calling for views on the usage of 084 numbers in the NHS which received more than 3000 responses.
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At least one surgery with an 0844 contract and with considerable time remaining time before it ends has adopted Skype as an alternative method of contacting the surgery. Some surgeries have two telephone numbers: one a premium rate 0844 number with a higher level of service and the other a standard geographic 01 or 02 number with a lower level of service, thereby creating a two-tier system for accessing the NHS services. Almost three years after the ban, some GPs within the constituencies of government ministers continue to use 0844 numbers. In the South-East of England, usage of 0844 numbers continues unabated.
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A temporary relaunch occurred - to EPG #232 - in June 2002, and lasted until August of the same year, when problems caused it to close again. It was again relaunched in May 2003 on EPG channel 265. Recurring financial issues, aggravated by the technical failure of a premium-rate SMS service on the channel which would have brought in funding, and various other problems, left the channel in a precarious state. By April 2004 it was running on an almost autopilot, having moved (again) to EPG channel 205, with a somewhat randomised playlist of a few videos, reruns of old club nights over night, and extreme sports in the day.
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The prize money was funded by a combination of a premium-rate telephone number which candidates had to ring to be selected as contestants, and £7m from headline sponsor eircell, which was then eircom's mobile phone subsidiary company. As part of the sale to Vodafone Eircell was rebranded in 2001, as part of this re-brand the series was sponsored by Eircell Vodafone, this was the only use of the Vodafone brand on the series . Initially the series aired on Friday and Tuesday night, with the Tuesday night episode split between an episode of the Irish soap opera Fair City. The show had several runs over consecutive Sunday evenings.
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Increasingly, in some countries, the call charges are fixed at a monthly rate and included as a supplement to the standing charges, known as inclusive calls. Emergency calls can invariably be made without charge. Most countries have a number sequence that enable the caller to make calls without charge, sometimes known as free calls or freephone, these are usually used by companies for their sales line (in the UK these are 0800 and 0808 numbers and in the US they are 800, 888, 877, 866, 855 and 844). Tariffs substantially in excess of the normal rate, known as premium rate, are used for information services, competition entries and pornography calls.
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In the last years, with restrictions on premium rate numbers, more common are pre-paid callbacks, in which case client leaves his/her credit card details over the phone to an operator, after which gets a call on a specified phone number. Telephone readings became most popular with the growth of live advice TV shows as main means of advertising, and is commonly used by companies rather than individual psychics, due to high setup costs. SMS and chat readings is a quick question- and-answer format of reading allowing exchange of basic information between psychic and client. Webcams and online video communication may also be used for this type of reading.
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Registration of a +800 number incurs a 300 Swiss franc ITU fee (as of 2018) in addition to any charges levied by the individual carrier. The number must be activated for inbound calls from at least two telephone country codes within 180 days. The +800 UIFN service is one of three ITU-administered non-geographic codes with a similar numbering scheme. The +808 Universal International Shared Cost Number (UISCN), billed at the price of a domestic call, shares the same eight-digit format; the +979 Universal International Premium Rate Number (UIPRN), billed at a high premium cost, carries one extra digit to indicate price range.
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In 1982, Northern & Shell began to publish the UK edition of Penthouse, although the licensing deal ended in the 1990s.Terry Kirby "From 'Penthouse' to penury? The man who would be King of the Centrefold", The Independent, 14 August 2003 The company soon moved on to publishing a range of pornographic magazines including Asian Babes, Readers Wives and Barely Legal. During the 1980s he also ran a premium rate phone sex company until 1988 when he sold the business after British Telecom raised concerns about the content. Desmond put the magazines up for sale in 2001 in an attempt to distance himself from pornography and employed a spin doctor to try and rebrand himself.
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In 2001, they quit This Morning, having been approached by Channel 4 to host a similar show, simply called Richard & Judy, shown for an hour in the early evenings. The show was produced by Cactus TV, run by Jonathan Ross's brother Simon and his wife Amanda Ross. In February 2007, the couple publicly apologised live on air due to the discovery of a TV quiz phone scam regarding the daily phone in You Say We Pay, in which winners were selected early on but viewers were encouraged to continue calling the premium rate entry number. On the same show, Madeley and Finnigan took the decision to suspend the daily quiz until further notice.
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Another now-uncommon premium-rate scam involves television programming that induces young children to dial the number, banking on the notion that they will be unaware of the charges that will be incurred. One variant, targeted at children too young to dial a number, enticed children to hold the phone up to the television set while the DTMF tones of the number were played. This type of scam was especially popular in the late '80s to early '90s in the United States before tougher regulations on the 900 number business forced many of these businesses to close. Responsiveness to 900-numbers is enhanced when used with load-balancing, to route calls based on demand.
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A hell theme, similar to that of Big Brother 2004 and Big Brother 2008 was hinted with a tagline in the trailer that said: "Hell Lies in Others". Five days later on 18 December 2009, the first full 30-second long trailer was aired, with the eye present. Channel 4 has announced that it will resume its tradition of donating some of its income made from the premium-rate telephone lines; votes will be increased to 50p (an increase from 35p), with 15p going to Comic Relief and the donations from the phone votes from 16 January 2010 to the finale will go to support the relief efforts in Haiti following the recent earthquake.
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XXXDial is a spyware/dialer application which created a number of problems for UK internet users in December 2004. It changes a victim's point-to-point protocol (PPP) settings so that it automatically tries to reconnect to a premium rate number, as opposed to a user's normal dial-in number.Spyware Guide. Retrieved 2008-12-10 It has been noted that the dialer does not give any indication to the user that they are using anything different from their standard ISP's number while they are actually being charged a rate up to 200 times their normal dialup rate The dialer is found "in the wild" on websites and with software that are often adult in nature.
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The bill would direct FEMA to: (1) restore during such six-month period specified estimated risk premium rate subsidies for flood insurance for pre-FIRM properties and properties purchased after such six-month period, and (2) submit to certain congressional committees a draft affordability framework addressing the affordability of flood insurance sold under the National Flood Insurance Program. The bill would prescribe procedures for expedited congressional consideration of legislation on FEMA affordability authorities. The bill would permit FEMA to enter into an agreement with another federal agency either to: (1) complete the affordability study, or (2) prepare the draft affordability framework. The bill would direct FEMA submit to certain congressional committees the affordability study and report.
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He was replaced by Richard Pym, head of UK Asset Resolution. Flowers testified to the Treasury Select Committee in November 2013 that the Britannia merger and other deals were undertaken under pressure from senior government ministers. In March 2018 Flowers was banned from the financial services industry by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for having used his work email for sexually explicit messages and to discuss illegal drugs, and his work mobile phone to call premium rate chat lines. The FCA said he had "demonstrated a lack of fitness and propriety required to work in financial services" and consumers would lose faith in the industry if he was allowed to continue in it.
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In February 2005, PC World attracted criticism, for the strong promotion of extended warranties (also known as insurance and support packages) and in May 2013, if an extended warranty is not purchased, customers are required to use outsourced, local rate telephone support for hardware issues or premium rate telephone lines (£1/minute, except for set up which is 75p/minute) for software issues. An internet survey by Which? in June 2004 ranked PC World joint last for customer satisfaction. In March 2006, PC World attempted to get away from its reputation for having sales staff on up to 20% commission, who would therefore use high pressure sales tactics with its "One Team" marketing campaign.
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Housemates could voluntarily leave the House at any time and those who broke the rules could have been ejected by Big Brother. In a change from previous series, Channel 4 announced that it would no longer donate any of its income from the premium-rate telephone lines, by which viewers vote for whom they would like to see evicted or win the programme, to charitable organisations. The broadcaster said that the current economic downturn is to blame for this decision and that the change would bring Big Brother into line with other programmes of its kind, such as The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. The format of the live eviction interview programme was altered for this series.
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In the 20th century these were call centres that charged a premium rate for calls and compiled a facsimile that was sent to various salvage yards so they could respond directly if the part was in stock. Many of these are now Web-based with requests for parts being e-mailed instantly. A "you pull it" junkyard in the United States Loading a barge in New York Often parts for which there is high demand are removed from cars and brought to the salvage yard's warehouse. Then a customer who asks for a specific part can obtain it immediately, without having to wait for the salvage yard employees to remove that part.
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This is being carried out only where necessary to avoid disruption. This means that varying fixed line number lengths will continue to exist in Ireland for the foreseeable future. Mobile numbers are presented as follows: 08A BBB BBBB Brackets should not be used around the mobile prefix as it is never optional and must always be dialled, even from another phone with the same prefix. Special rate numbers, such as free phone/toll free and premium rate are usually grouped: Freephone: 1800 BB BB BB or (spoken as one-eight-hundred) Local rate: 1850 BB BB BB (eighteen-fifty) 1550 BB BB BB (read as fifteen-fifty) However, for memorability, this is not consistently adhered to.
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Costa Rican telephone numbers are 8 digits long, and are usually written in the format 2NNN-NNNN (for landlines), 8NNN-NNNN (for mobile telephone numbers from local telephone company ICE), 6NNN-NNNN (for mobile telephone numbers from Movistar) and 7NNN- NNNN (for mobile phone numbers from Claro). Toll-free numbers use the format 800-NNN-NNNN and premium-rate telephone numbers are written 90x-NNN-NNNN where x varies according to the type of service offered. There are also "short numbers" for emergencies such as 911. When Costa Rica switched from 7 to 8 digit numbers, it used a scheme similar to the 8 digit number scheme already in place in El Salvador at that time.
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Babestation was a unique style of TV programme in Britain. Despite not being popular, and having low production values, Babestation produced many clones that can all be seen as originating from its format. These programmes all differ slightly in format and explicitness – Babestation generally does not show genitals or sex toys, or contain very strong language; since 2004 camera phone technology has been used to allow viewers to send in pictures of themselves; and the show has always featured adverts for similar services in its commercial breaks. But the idea is the same – live, simulated sex interspersed with unscripted conversation, advertising a premium rate number to phone the women, which makes it a profitable business.
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In autumn 2007, Michael Healy-Rae took part in a reality television show on RTÉ called Celebrities Go Wild, set in the "unforgiving landscapes" of Connemara, County Galway. He emerged as the winner, having received the largest number of votes from the "viewing public". In June 2011, news broke of a voting scandal, for which journalist Senan Molony received the award for "Scoop of the Year" at the National Newspapers of Ireland's Journalism Awards. It was revealed that Healy-Rae had received 3,636 votes, from a phone in Leinster House, at a cost of €2,600 to the Irish taxpayer, the premium-rate calls being charged on a tariff designed to raise money for charity.
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Bulletins were broadcast 24 hours a day from Chiltern studios in Dunstable utilising audio from Sky News and CNN Radio. Copy and scripts were distributed by stations via fax and a premium rate fax-back service. Network News enjoyed considerable success and won the contract to supply news to Virgin Radio upon its launch in April 1993. However, it suffered a major blow when it lost the Virgin Radio contract to Reuters Radio News in April 1995 and GWR chose to close Network News in April 1996 when it took over the Chiltern Radio network. Reuters Radio News ran from 1994 until June 1996 from studios at Gray's Inn Road in London.
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In the subplot, Marge finds an anomalously high phone bill for calls made by Lisa to the Corey hotline — a premium rate phone service where television fans can listen to the voice of a fictional actor based on The Two Coreys. Lisa promises to stop increasing the family's phone bill, but continues to make calls to the hotline from such places as Dr. Hibbert's office and a telephone at Springfield Elementary. After Principal Skinner catches her, Marge suggests that Lisa try to go until midnight without calling the hotline; if she can do so, she will have conquered her addiction. Although tempted throughout the rest of the day, Lisa beats her addiction.
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ITV had introduced ITV Play to some criticism, attracting significant negative publicity for the group, initially for the perceived poor quality of the shows provided. More criticism was to come when several British TV companies were caught up in a series of scandals related to the manipulation of phone-in quizzes, and the significant revenues generated from Premium rate telephone numbers. Following investigation by UK regulator Ofcom, the ITV Play channel was axed shortly afterwards but with programmes retained on the ITV Network after midnight. It was announced on 12 September 2007 that ITV was to close the ITV Play brand and its shows on the ITV Network 'by the end of 2007'.
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Ofcom has also reserved certain number ranges for use in television dramas and films, so as to avoid the risk of people having their telephone numbers displayed and receiving unwanted calls. This is similar to the use of fictitious telephone numbers in the United States and Canada starting with the digits 555. In most of the large cities with three-digit area codes, a range of numbers is reserved, usually all the numbers starting with the digits 496. For fictitious numbers in other areas, the area code 01632 is reserved; this code is not in use, although 0632 was used for Newcastle upon Tyne until the late 1980s (63 = NE) and briefly reallocated for use by premium rate services in the 1990s.
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In early 2007, a series of scandals broke out in the UK involving allegations of phone-in segments of television programmes and quiz channels conning viewers. ITV suspended all programmes involving premium rate phone-ins on 5 March 2007, including its quiz channel ITV Play. This was to allow independent auditor Deloitte to conduct a review of programmes carried by ITV including Dancing on Ice, The X Factor and Quizmania which all used phone-ins to generate revenue, to ensure they are run fairly. ITV Play was taken off the air during the review, but for a few days it ran a limited after midnight service for only four hours before on 13 March, ITV announced that ITV Play had been permanently closed down.
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Businesses are attracted to using 084 numbers as many of the sellers of NGNs assert that callers are paying only a "local rate" call. Consumers are aware that they are being charged for time spent waiting for their call to be answered. (Even more of the public is aware of the huge costs of 09 Premium rate numbers, where prices have to be clearly indicated, and on which call queuing is specifically prohibited.) There has been increasing media coverage which has raised awareness of this. During debates in the House of Commons, a number of Members of Parliament have criticised the use of 0845 numbers to provide access to government services, such as at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
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She ran several websites for distributing psychic readings, also garnering a percentage of the money from sales of other services with premium-rate telephone numbers advertised on her websites. In addition to her advertising and psychic reading business, Lopatka marketed pornographic content, under the alias Nancy Carlson, which depicted women who were unconscious from being drugged, hypnotized or chloroformed engaging in sex acts with each other. She sold her undergarments, an advertisement for them reading, "Is there anyone out there interested in buying my worn panties..." She also used the Internet to fulfill her own sexual desires that were often considered irregular to society. Lopatka went under more pseudonyms and personas when on pornographic chat rooms of sites like fetishfeet.
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A country-wide public transport route planners for all modes is 9292.9292 route planner in English; 9292 is the brand name of REISinformatiegroep bv, of which all public transport companies in The Netherlands are shareholders. For situations where one does not have internet access and for people who like to speak to a live advisor there is also the premium-rate telephone number 0900 9292 (€ 0,70 p/m); the information can be told, and additionally without extra charge be sent as text message. A similar route planner is of NS.NS route planner: basic version in English, extended version in Dutch However, it does not show any maps, except of the railway stations of departure, transfer, and arrival and their surroundings.Not working at the time of writing.
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A public vore was put into place and contestants were expected to campaign for votes in any way they could. Each finalist could receive votes through a premium rate phone and text number, a 'like' on their individual Facebook page and a Twitter and E-mail vote accessible from the main Mr Gay UK website. Voting ended on 29 November 2011 and the five finalists were announced. They were Greg Lumley - Middlesbrough, Charlie Drummond - Bristol, John Wheeldon - Leeds, Nik Chapman - Newcastle and Samuel Kneen - Cardiff, who eventually went on to win the competition Promotion A media relations push was made on the competition with articles appearing in local and regional media and radio, but also had national coverage in guardian.co.
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In Hungary, telephone numbers are in the format 06 + area code + subscriber number, where the area code is a single digit 1 for Budapest, the capital, followed by a seven digit subscriber number, and two digits followed by either seven (for cell phone numbers) or six digits (others). for other areas, cell phone numbers or non-geographic numbers like toll-free or premium- rate numbers. Two digit area codes which consist of digits between 2 and 9 are geographic areas, while area codes ending with a 0 or a 1 denote other services. The area code 55, which, according to its first digit, would be normally assigned to a geographic area in Eastern Hungary, is reserved as a test code with no subscriber numbers assigned.
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Previously, the competition was only open for the duration of the show, with the box containing the prize being opened at the end of the show, and the winner's name announced thereafter. This was changed from the third Season in August 2007, following the premium-rate services operator ICSTIS imposing a £30,000 fine on iTouch, the company responsible for running the competition. It ruled that the competition was misleading since the impression was given that entrants stood a chance of winning any of the three amounts contained in the blue viewers' boxes, whereas in fact since the programme is pre-recorded, by the time of broadcast only one prize amount is possible. The altered format of the competition only opened the competition after the prize amount had been chosen.
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By 1999 ClubCall was in the hands of Scottish Telecom, later Thus plc, who wanted additional call minutes for its network. Under long- serving Managing Editor Eamonn Watson, ClubCall extended its coverage to all major football tournaments in 14 countries and uniquely offered, at that time, the only match commentary service for supporters of many teams. However, by the turn of the millennium, many premium rate information services were in a period of decline as the popularity of the internet began to take hold. In 2001, Glasgow-based Thus plc wanted to focus on building sales of phone and internet services to the corporate sector and sold ClubCall and its other consumer brands (RaceCall and WeatherCall) to mobile media firm iTouch as part of a £3.5 million disposal.
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Public opinion has been critical of both Patientline and Hospedia, as many feel that charging the sick and vulnerable to access television in hospital is unacceptable. In 2012 The Sunday Mirror covered increase of charges, with reporter Nick Owens stating that the cost of hospital television was £9 per day, a higher figure than that paid by prison inmates. Wholesale charges for calls made to the units remained at the personal numbers rate of 49p per minute for the duration of the period when 070 telephone numbers were employed, with callers paying considerably more. Moving to Premium Rate 0872 numbers with a 13p per minute Service Charge in late 2019 has resulted in friends and relatives of patients having to pay up to 78p per minute to call the bedside phone.
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A widespread misuse of scratchcards is the free-of- charge distribution of cards offering a range of prizes, ranging from extremely low-value to very desirable; for example from time-limited discount vouchers redeemable only through a specified agent to cars. Cards always reveal that a prize has been won, but the nature and value of the prize can only be determined by phoning a premium rate telephone claim line costing a significant sum per minute. Calls to this number are designed by the promoter always to take several minutes, and the prize won is, in reality, always of far less value than the cost of the call, and usually not worth claiming. Regulatory authorities for telephone services have been taking action against such schemes, issuing warnings and large fines.
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The channel officially launched on Freeview channel 53 (multiplex D) on 23 May 2003 as Free2Play, with all the games on the channel available to play free of charge. However, later that year the channel introduced paid-for content games, which the player had to phone a premium rate number to gain access to the channel, hence the channel's re-branding to F2P Games the following year. In late 2004, F2P dropped the brand completely and aligned with its sister on Sky Digital, YooPlay Games. In late 2005 the service switched to multiplex C. At around this time, YooMedia decided to lease certain hours of the channel's bandwidth to other broadcasters, namely overnight EPG services (presently tvtv DIGITAL), and reduced the output on the YooPlay Games channel significantly.
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Also like Open..., the service relied on a telephone connection to work and charges would be levied (as premium rate) based on the calls placed by the Digibox modem, though the channel-specific services (like Sky Sports Active) were usually free. A telephone icon would appear on the screen and the necessary fees would be stated before the viewers went forward with their selection. In 2004, a major redesign saw the previous, text-heavy top page replaced by a visually- based front page, with a video magazine playing full-screen (surrounded by promotions, options and a scrolling ticker); the yellow button would take the user to a 16-screen video mosaic showcasing multiple options. The green button would take users to an alphabetical index of the entire service.
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1\. Develop appropriate corporate structures and policies: The CEIFB will strengthen its corporate governance by finalizing and implementing its Code of Ethics and Conduct and developing detailed conflict of interest procedures. 2\. Establish the necessary human resources: The CEIFB will appoint a Chief Actuary, recruit additional staff and develop an HR management framework. 3\. Fulfill legislated mandate: The CEIFB will set the EI premium rate for 2011, establish an independent review of the Chief Actuary's methodology, develop a risk-management framework, and begin to put in place investment policies, systems and procedures to enable the investment of funds (once they are received). 4\. Develop a robust reporting system: The CEIFB will ensure that all of its statutory reporting requirements are met, and develop Corporate Plans against which future performance can be measured and reported.
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Assigning a separate grade to 12 measures, employers gave "local hospital care" two Ds, eight Cs, two Bs and no As, while "doctors' services" received one D, eight Cs, three Bs and no As. The 2014 American College of Occupational and Environment Medicine survey, Employment Status Matters: A Statewide Survey of Quality-of-Life, Prevention Behaviors, and Absenteeism and Presenteeism, included findings from the 2010 and 2012 studies. Contrary to what many critics of the 2010 Affordable Care Act anticipated, the most recent study found that employers have not dropped insurance coverage for their employees. The percentage of employers offering coverage increased four percentage points between 2013 and 2014, from 77 to 81 percent. The study also found that premium rate increases have slowed over the past few years.
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Boyz has diversified its advertising market so that although gay bars, clubs, shops and saunas remain important to its business, there is increasingly a wider range of advertisers from areas like theatre, film, music, event and travel. Boyz has not published any escort adverts, premium rate phonelines or explicit adult material for over 10 years. The first "dummy" edition of Boyz magazine was distributed by Kelvin Sollis, David Bridle and friends at Gay Pride in June 1991 and the first full edition of Boyz was published on Thursday 4 July 1991 and distributed to gay venues in London. David Bridle was its first editor and continues to be its managing editor. Previous editors included Simon Gage from 1993 - 1998, David Hudson from 1998 - 2006 and Stuart Brumfitt from 2007 - 2011.
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Instead, the magazine introduced an increased number of pages of photographs from recent scene happenings and a dedicated news page; the number of features on subjects not directly related to the scene such as grooming, health and partnership were reduced to just one or two per week. The Agony Uncle and relationship/sexual advice pages were merged into one section. Although the new format magazine abandoned its more explicit content, adverts for male escorts and erotic phonelines continued, perhaps due to the amount of revenue they raised for the publishers, although male escorts adverts and premium rate telephone lines were entirely dropped by 2008. The size of the contact ads section was drastically reduced in 2007; the publication no longer offered a service for replying to box numbers by post.
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Concerned at the lack of transparency and the high retail charges for calls to 070 numbers, Ofcom launched a call cost review in 2017. This led to a consultation in 2018 which recommended capping the termination rate or wholesale rate at no more than the rate for calling a mobile number. Those changes took effect on 1 October 2019, the wholesale rate was reduced from around 49p per minute to just 0.489p per minute, and several landline and mobile phone providers immediately passed the saving on by including calls to 070 numbers within inclusive allowances. Just as this change was happening, Hospedia abandoned usage of Personal Numbers starting 070 for bedside telephones, and has instead swapped to Premium Rate Numbers in various number ranges from 0872 800 xxxx to 0872 849 xxxx, supplied by Nexus Communications.
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In February 2014, it was revealed Bid Shopping had debts of £68m and was looking to enter a voluntary agreement with its creditors to keep the company going. On 10 March 2014, Bid was rebranded as 'Shop at Bid' and took on a more traditional shopping channel look with the premium rate number replaced with a number costing 20p per minute, it also appears the channel is no longer having auctions and has gone for a traditional sell and buy format. On 17 April 2014, Bid Shopping was put into administration; Shop at Bid and its sister channel Price Drop were closed down with immediate effect with around 200 jobs being lost. On 18 February 2015, Grant Miller, through the company Bid Shopping Limited, acquired the intellectual property, patents, brands and domains of Sit-Up, which resulted in Sit-Up emerging from administration.
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The business models of their publishers vary. Some issue the magazine for free, while charging advertisers; in some, advertisements are free but readers pay for their copies; in some, only advertisements offering goods under a certain value are free, and others are charged for; and some publishers charge both the advertiser and the reader. The decision as to which business model to pursue rests largely on the perceived value of the advertisements to the readers, and the perceived value to the advertisers of receiving responses to their ads. In the case of personal advertisements, particularly, the publisher may also generate further income from the provision of a voicemail service, which allows people responding to an advertisement to call a premium rate telephone number and leave a message for the advertiser, but does not reveal the advertiser's identity.
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A statutory holiday (also known as "stats" or "general" or "public" holiday) in Canada is legislated either through the federal, or a provincial or territorial government. Most workers, public and private, are entitled to take the day off with regular pay. However, some employers may require employees to work on such a holiday, but the employee must either receive a day off in lieu of the holiday or must be paid at a premium rate – usually 1½ (known as "time and a half") or twice (known as "double time") the regular pay for their time worked that day, in addition to the holiday pay (except for high technology workers in British Columbia). In most provinces, when a statutory holiday falls on a normal day off (generally a weekend), the following work day is considered a statutory holiday.
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One listener, Mari Hamilton from Aylesbury who used the on-air name 'Luna', contacted the programme to say that they were blocked by the channel after winning a number of cash prizes using the free web entry option.Quiz channel bans by the BBC for the BBC Radio 4 programme You and Yours, broadcast 10 October 2006. Retrieved 10 October 2006 Quiz Call was removed from TV screens as part of Five's review into all its premium rate phone calling quiz programmes in March 2007, and returned on the evening of 30 March 2007. At least one independent individual has estimated Ostrich Media to be drawing more than £23,000 per hour of the show being on air, or around £100,000 per evening based on the new legal requirement to show the number of calls received in any particular minute.
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This is a list of dialing codes in Greece. The first digit represents the type of service. 1 is used for short codes, 2 for geographical numbers (3 and 4 are reserved for that purpose too), 5 is used for inter-network routing purposes (non-dialable codes) and VPNs, 6 for mobile services, 7 is reserved for universal access numbers (not active), 8 for reduced-fee services (like 800 toll-free, 801 local call, 89 dial-up and data services), 9 is used for premium rate services (901 for general purpose and 909 for adult-only services). All dialable numbers are ten digits, except for short codes (3–5 digits in the 1 range), 807-XXXX (seven digits) used for calling card access codes, and numbers in the 5 range, used for routing purposes and not dialable by end-subscribers.
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In the United Kingdom, the 0870 prefix was originally used by UK-based free conference calling providers in order to receive a rebate from every call from a telephone company that owns the number. However, in April 2009 Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, announced that the rebate that is payable to the telecom's supplier when an 0870 number is used would be removed. Systems were soon moved to 0844 and 0871 prefixes in order to retain the revenue sharing arrangement, this means that whilst you wouldn't pay the conference call provider directly, you would dial an expensive premium-rate number to access your conference call. Recently in the UK, a very small number of conference call providers have begun to use 03 numbers, which are included in bundled minutes under Ofcom regulations.
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As an alternative to official premium-rate numbers, service operators have been known to use kickbacks from high-rate international call tariffs to charge for their services. In these cases, the calls may never leave the country of origin, even though the number has a country calling code (or an NANP area code) specifying a country with high incoming call rates. A recent practice known as traffic pumping involves service operators partnering with small telephone companies who are allowed to charge high call termination fees for incoming long-distance calls, per government regulations which mark the serving area of the small phone company as rural/high cost. Since most, if not all, long distance in the US is a single rate regardless of terminating exchange for customers (but not for long-distance companies, as each interconnection agreement is different), these services are "free" for the calling customers.
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In 2010 the company featured on the BBC's consumer affairs programme Watchdog which portrayed the company in "favourable" light, neither negative or positive. A major criticism is that cards purchased from Hospedia card machines are non-refundable; the company state that if the patient pays by credit or debit card, any unused credit is refunded. However, getting such a refund has proven to be time-consuming in practice, requiring the ward, bay and bed numbers to be known. In February 2010, the then head of the Patients Association Michael Summers described the process as "a tax on the ill", saying that "They are a captive audience and many patients simply can’t afford these prices". In 2009 there were also complaints about a lack of “on site” support for operational problems with bedside units, and this was especially the case out of regular working hours when Hospedia relied on its 24-hour premium-rate helpline to resolve issues.
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Retrieved 13 June 2013 On 4 April 2011, Ryanair began adding a surcharge of €2 to its flights to cover the costs arising from compliance with EC Regulation 261/2004, which requires it to pay for meals and accommodation for passengers on delayed and cancelled flights. Ryanair did not offer customers the possibility of contacting it by email or webform, only through a premium rate phone line, by fax or by post; however, it does now have a web form contact option. An early day motion in the British Parliament put forward in 2006 criticised Ryanair for this reason and called on the company to provide customers with a means to contact the company by email. Ryanair offers a basic rate telephone number for post-booking enquiries in the United Kingdom, which chose to omit the exemption for passenger transport services when enacting Article 21 of Directive 2011/83/EU on Consumer Rights under Regulation 41 of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Payments) Regulations 2013.
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Former networked shows, such as the evening music and comedy show Simon James and Hill and late-night phone-in North-South Divided (which was broadcast jointly from studios in London and Durham to pitch listeners in the South of England against those in the North), have been dropped in favour of more music-based shows that reflect the daytime sound of the TLRC stations. Until recently, Sunday afternoons across the network have been dedicated to a premium rate phone-in show hosted by Andy Muir, titled Money on your Mobile. Network shows were mostly broadcast from Mix 107 in High Wycombe, although they also sometimes came from the alternative network centres at Isle of Wight Radio or Minster FM in York. In 2005, TLRC made a large number of acquisitions including full control of east Lancashire station 2BR and Bath FM. New licences, Durham FM and Brunel FM, went on air in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
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Grahame was nominated for eviction four times during her initial stay in the Big Brother house and was eventually evicted on Day 58, with 37.2% of the public vote. Less than four weeks after her exit, she was voted back into the 'House Next Door' by 63% of the voting public, along with three other ex- housemates. She was then chosen to return to the main house by the surviving contestants and despite the fact that she had already been evicted, she was reinstated as an eligible housemate and was once again given the opportunity to receive the £100,000 prize handed out to the winner; a controversial move that prompted 2,700 viewers to complain to the premium rate phone watchdog, ICSTIS. An ICSTIS regulator commented that the majority of complaining viewers believed that they were misled by the makers of Big Brother, as they were under the impression that they had voted to evict the ex-housemate permanently.
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The original range of telephone numbers starting '03' was progressively cleared between 1995 and 2001: former geographic area codes starting 03 were renumbered to start 013 during the national PhONEday renumbering, while premium rate, local rate and mobile phone prefixes such as 0331, 0345 and 0378 were transferred to a simplified structure of 09, 08 and 07 numbers. The 03 numbering range was then designated as available for any new geographic area codes that might be created during further renumbering. With no further geographic renumbering undertaken, the 03 numbering range was no longer required for its original purpose and was instead redesignated for "non-geographic numbers charged at geographic rate" service in 2006. Telecoms regulator Ofcom introduced the range as it believed that some organisations would benefit from a type of non-geographic number that did not impose any additional charges on callers, and that some consumers were confused about charges for existing special-rate numbers starting 084 and 087.
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Generally, this is done as the stations of MyNetworkTV have become part of duopolies with major network affiliate stations (and even those owned by its parent company, Fox Television Stations) and those stations have used the MyNetworkTV affiliates to carry extended primetime local newscasts and local sports which provide steadier ratings and revenue than MyNetworkTV's non- original schedule. The overnight period is also noted for the prevalence of cheaply produced local advertisements which allow an advertiser to purchase time on the station for a low cost, advertisements for services of a sexual nature (such as premium-rate adult rate entertainment services and adult products from companies such as Adam & Eve), direct response advertising for products and services (often marketed "As Seen On TV") otherwise seen during infomercials, and public service announcements (such as those commissioned by the Ad Council) airing in these time slots due to the reduced importance of advertising revenue.
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The awards were shown live on ITV in December from 1990 to 2006, after which the broadcast of the British Comedy Awards 2007 was suspended by ITV due to allegations of irregularities and deception in the awarding of the 2005 People's Choice Award and then ongoing related investigations about the 2007 British television phone-in scandal resulting in Ofcom's subsequently fining ITV a record £5.675 million for its misuse of premium-rate telephone lines. After Michael Parkinson presented the inaugural ceremony at the London Palladium in December 1990, the majority of subsequent shows were presented by Jonathan Ross, staged at London Studios, and produced by Michael Hurll Television (MHTV), whose parent company is Unique Communications Group. Ross did not present the 2008 awards, in light of The Russell Brand Show prank calls row and was replaced for that year by Angus Deayton. The 2007 show occurred on 6 December 2007, but was not televised due to the 2005 controversy and subsequent investigations.
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When Deal Or No Deal began, viewers were invited to phone in (at a premium rate), use the Channel 4 website or enter by post (free of charge) to enter the competition, in which an audience member selects one of three boxes (coloured blue and separate from the boxes used in the main game), and a selected entrant wins the amount of money displayed in that box. The amounts on offer in the competition varied from day to day, but typically comprised two amounts in the low thousands of pounds and a top prize of £10,000 or more. On rare occasions, a match play competition had been run in which the winning entrant received the same amount as the studio contestant instead of a prize being selected from the blue viewers' boxes; this allowed one viewer to win £70,000. Entry was open from the beginning of the second part of the show (when the winning box was chosen), to noon the next day, with the winner revealed at the beginning of the show seven days later.
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Toll restriction or toll denial is a feature offered by telephone companies which allows a line to be so programmed that it is impossible to originate long-distance calls from that line, or to accept charges reversed to the number by other parties. Such lines usually allow calls to be made to no- charge numbers locally and toll-free (in North America, area codes 1-800, 1-844, 1-855, 1-866, 1-877 and 1-888), so customers can still make some long- distance calls. Most commonly this restriction is applied at the request of the owner of the premises, who does not wish to be subject to unlimited liability for costly unauthorised calls made by others at the site. Restriction of calls to overseas or premium-rate telephone numbers are common options on some systems, such as voice over IP. Private branch exchange clients are often able to configure toll restriction on a per-extension basis through the local PBX, either blocking all trunk calls or requiring that a numeric password be dialled to complete the call.
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To win an amount of money in this scratch game the player has to find it three times under the scratch area. A scratchcard (also called a scratch off, scratch ticket, scratcher, scratchum, scratchie, scritchies, scratch-it, scratch game, scratch-and-win, instant game or instant lottery in different places) is a small card, often made of thin paper-based card for competitions and plastic to conceal PINs, where one or more areas contain concealed information which can be revealed by scratching off an opaque covering. Applications include cards sold for gambling (especially lottery games and quizzes), free-of-charge cards for quizzes, fraudulent free cards encouraging calls to premium rate phone services, and to conceal confidential information such as PINs for telephone calling cards (otherwise known as recharge cards) and other prepaid services. In some cases the entire scratchable area needs to be scratched to see whether a prize has been won—the card is printed either to be a winner or not—or to reveal the secret code; the result does not depend upon what portions are scratched off.
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In 2002, the company was bought for £23.5m by the media company Chrysalis, which trumpeted its purchase with the promise that it would lift the listenership to at least one million from around 700,000 (LBC had enjoyed an audience of more than two million in the early 1980s). Production was moved to Chrysalis's base in North Kensington, and the formatting of the two frequencies was swapped, the talk format moving to FM and the news format to AM. Mark Flanagan, the station's Managing Director, left Chrysalis in 2005 to set up a political consultancy company, and was replaced by David Lloyd. Some claimed he held no previous experience in the talk and chat radio genre, which overlooked the almost two years he spent with the Century FM brand in its Border TV ownership days where the station was a 50/50 music/talk service. He also introduced a podcasting service called LBC Plus, and a number of premium-rate promotional opportunities to replace falling advertising revenues experienced by the radio sector.
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Some also offer switchboard and call centre equipment in a package deal where some of the revenue derived from calls subsidises those costs. While all 084, 087 (except 0870) and 09 numbers charge a "premium" to the caller, numbers starting 0871, 0872, 0873, 090, 091 and 098 are covered by additional Premium Rate Services (PRS) regulation, generally have the highest costs, and are heavily regulated by the Phone-paid Services Authority. New "adult" services (SES) must use 098; legacy 0908 and 0909 numbers also carry these services. With the increased price differential, the use of non-geographic telephone numbers in the United Kingdom has been a major cause of bill shock. Pollster YouGov found that 49% of mobile users have been surprised to see how much they have been charged for calling non-geographic numbers and 90% believe organisations should make the cost of these calls clearer. According to Ofcom, UK consumers paid around £1.9 billion for calls to non-geographic numbers in 2009. Clients are attracted to 084 and 087 numbers because per minute revenue is generated for them from each call, and call queuing is permitted. Call centres may generate very high revenue from high call volumes.
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