mathematics

Premium-rate telephone number

Premium-rate telephone number is a mathematics topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Premium-rate telephone number rather than just read about it. In short: Premium-rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers that charge callers higher price rates for select services, including information and entertainment. A portion of the call fees is paid to the service provider, allowing premium calls to be an additional source of revenue for businesses.

Key takeaways

Premium-rate telephone number belongs to mathematics; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Premium-rate telephone number to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Premium-rate telephone number from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Premium-rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers that charge callers higher price rates for select services, including information and entertainment. A portion of the call fees is paid to the service provider, allowing premium calls to be an additional source of revenue for businesses. Tech support, psychic hotlines, and adult chat lines (e.g. dating and phone sex) are among the most popular kinds of premium-rate phone services. Other services include directory enquiries, weather forecasts, competitions and ratings televoting (especially relating to television shows). Some businesses, e.g. low-cost airlines, and diplomatic missions, such as the US Embassy in London or the UK Embassy in Washington, have also used premium-rate phone numbers for calls from the general public. Premium calls are typically independent of the caller's area code. These telephone numbers are usually allocated based on a national telephone numbering plan that makes them easily distinguishable from non-premium numbers; telephone companies often offer their customers the option to block calls from these number ranges, and in some jurisdictions, are required by law to offer blocking services. SMS (texting) also has a feature for premium rate services, however instead of standard telephone numbers, premium-rate texting uses so-called shortcodes, which are 4–6 digit numbers that work only for SMS.

Africa

Egypt 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).

South Africa In South Africa, premium rate SMS short codes are four or five digits long, starting with either '3' or '4'. Premium rate telephone services are regulated by The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) and ranges from 0862 through 0869(increasing rates relating to the next digit after 086).

Asia

Armenia In Armenia, premium numbers start with 900, followed by six digits.

Indonesia 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.

Japan In Japan, premium rate telephone number service was currently known as "Navi-dial" and began with the prefix 0570 followed by six digits. The "DIAL Q2" service that's number had the prefix 0990 was ended operations in early 2013.

South Korea In South Korea, 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. They are used by banks, insurance companies, nationwide restaurant chains, consumer electronics companies, online shopping malls and others for customer service and delivery order. In many cases, customers calling them are charged at a long-distance rate without knowing that they are making a long-distance call.

Vietnam In Vietnam, premium rate numbers start with 1900; premium rate SMS have 4 digits starting with 4,5,6,7,8 and the 2nd digit decides the price (except 1400 - 1409 with variable prices from 3000-18000 VND per sms, reserved for charity and 156, 5656, 1414 which are free).

Taiwan In Taiwan, premium rate numbers start with 0203, 0204 and 0209.

Mongolia In Mongolia, premium rate numbers start with 1900.

Europe In many European countries, such as 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, which came into force on 13 June 2014, was intended to eliminate this pricing model, but the law's implementation and success varies widely from country to country. BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications) maintains a detailed list of premium telephone number prefixes used within EU member states and territories.

Austria In Austria, 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.

Belgium In Belgium, premium rate numbers in Belgium have the area codes 090x.

0900, 0902, 0903, 0904 (per minute – from 0.25 to 2.00 EUR) 0906, 0907 (adult services – per minute – from 0.25 to 2.00 EUR) 0905, 0909 (per call – from 0.25 to 31.00 EUR) Call limited to 10 mins.

Croatia In Croatia, the 060 prefix is used for premium rate numbers for non-erotic and 064 prefix is used for erotic services.

Czech Republic In the Czech Republic, 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).

Denmark In Denmark, premium rate numbers have the area codes 9013, 9050 and 9055/9056. The 9013 is for helplines and chat services, the 9050 (paid per call) is for TV Call-in Shows and the 9055/9056 codes are for charitable organizations. However, the regulation is very strict. TDC Holding A/S is the only carrier offering these numbers, with MCXess and kwak Telecom offering numbers internationally. The regulator offers a shortened English regulation.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Premium-rate telephone number

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Premium-rate telephone number claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In mathematics, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Premium-rate telephone number before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Premium-rate telephone number ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Premium-rate telephone number

In research: Premium-rate telephone number appears in mathematics research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Premium-rate telephone number in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Premium-rate telephone number is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Telecommunications economics, Telephone numbers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Premium-rate telephone number outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Premium-rate telephone number” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Premium-rate telephone number in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Premium-rate telephone number means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Premium-rate telephone number out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Premium-rate telephone number in simple terms?

Why does Premium-rate telephone number matter?

Because it connects several mathematics ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Premium-rate telephone number?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Premium-rate telephone number.