The costs of calling ‘service’ numbers starting 084, 087, 09 and 118 have also been simplified.

The measures were announced by Ofcom last month as part of campaign to make phone charges simpler, but come into force today.

According to the regulator, callers in the UK collectively spend 250 million hours calling ‘service’ numbers annually, at a cost of around £900m.

However, callers to these numbers are  generally not told how much they will be charged for the call by the service provider.

Currently, callers are only given specific pence per minute information for calls from a BT landline – charges for calls from other landlines and mobiles aren’t outlined.

Under the new rules, call charges will be clearer on telephone bills, and in marketing/advertising material – and callers will have the cost of a call clearly explained to them in pence per minute terms.

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