The new charging structure - which will come into effect on 1 August 2009 - will give consumers a much clearer idea of how much it costs to call these numbers.

0870 numbers are used by many businesses and organisations to provide a single non geographic number.  However, consumers are often charged more for calling these numbers than they would if they called a 'geographic rate' (01, 02 or 03) number. And because they cost more, businesses and organisations are able to take a cut of the call charges - a practice known as revenue sharing.

However, the new rules will encourage communication providers to stop charging higher prices for calls to 0870 numbers from fixed lines and mobiles than calls to 'geographic rate' numbers.They will also be encouraged to include 0870 calls in call packages on the same basis as geographic calls.

A newly released mobile broadband forecast by global advisory and consulting firm Ovum, shows that users accessing the Internet via mobile broadband enabled laptops and handsets is expected to generate revenues of $137 billion globally over the next 5 years.