Ofcom has published new proposals designed to simplify calls to ‘non-geographic’ numbers. The proposals are designed to resolve confusion about how much it costs to call organisations that use UK telephone numbers beginning with 03, 08, 09 and 118.

If they become law, calls to 0800 telephone numbers would be free from all fixed-line and mobile phones in the UK.

O2 UK has announced a new tariff called On & On.

Prices start from £26 a month for unlimited calls to mobiles and landlines in the UK plus unlimited text messages to UK-based numbers. The deal also includes 1GB of data that can be used in any way, including tethering and streaming.

Mark Bridge writes:

Back in the 1960s, Hertz was the number one hire car company in the USA. Avis was trailing a long way behind. Looking for a new advertising campaign, CEO Robert Townsend spoke to Bill Bernbach - the ‘B’ in ad agency DDB - and a few months later “We try harder” became the Avis tagline.

“Avis is only No.2 in rent a cars” the headlines admitted. “We try harder. When you’re not the biggest, you have to.”

It’s a message I was reminded of when I met Andreas Bernström at Mobile World Congress last month. Andreas is CEO of Rebtel, the world’s second-largest mobile Voice-over-IP company. With Skype seen as market leader for VoIP services, I asked Andreas whether Rebtel also needed to try harder.

The European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee says it wants to see wholesale roaming service suppliers cutting prices below the EU price cap. It’s approved legislation that would allow consumers to buy roaming services separately from their ‘home’ mobile service.

The new rules would also set limits on retail data roaming charges and would further reduce roaming price caps for calls and SMS text messages.

The GSMA made a series of announcements about Rich Communication Services at last week’s Mobile World Congress, including the creation of a new consumer-facing brand called joyn.

Rich Communication Services - also referred to as Rich Communication Suite, Rich Communications and RCS - refers to a combination of voice and messaging services. For example, a customer could share photos or documents while making a voice call.