<<<..."My work means I travel quite a lot," said the user, a consultant. "When SkypeIn came in for small businesses, it was the best way of doing business for a small company. To then have a good chunk of all your incoming phone calls just taken away from you is an absolute pain in the backside. The free year's subscription to the random number you might get hardly makes up for the damage done to us as customers." Another user, who works in the skydiving business, told ZDNet.co.uk that he had subscribed to Skype for Business since the service was launched three years ago. "Our number appears on all our literature sent out for the last 12 months," said the user. "This number is quite deep in the market and our marketing engine has been focused towards getting people to call this telephone number. Skype has absolutely no understanding of the fact that they have business users if they think another free telephone number is going to put all this right. Personally, I think Skype don't realise what an 0207 number represents, [which] shows a complete lack of understanding of their own customers." Part of the problem is the fact that Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, cannot intervene in the case. SkypeIn does not offer the ability to call out. Therefore, Skype has no legal obligation to port or redirect numbers to other operators. A spokesperson for Ofcom said that those affected by Skype's number change would have no recourse other than to go to one of the UK's telecoms arbitration services, CISAS or Otelo. However, Skype is not a member of either service, and it is also not a member of the VoIP providers' association, ITSPA. "The regulatory position in the UK is not keeping up with where telephony is today," said Fogg. "The bit that's important is not dialling out — it's the contact number or contact address for incoming calls. That's what's quoted [to customers and contacts]." Don McQueen, managing director of GCI Telecom, said that the porting or redirecting of numbers between operators remained subject to commercial agreements being struck between those operators. Although he refused to divulge the exact details of the commercial dispute between GCI and Skype, he said that a "nominal fee" for the 0207 numbers had been charged to Skype until recently, when GCI "had to move to a market-rate fee". "We have offered everyone who has [an affected SkypeIn number] the ability to keep their number with a VoIP service from us at £4 a month," added McQueen, who claimed that just under 10,000 numbers had been affected. "This service [and price] is probably not going to be offered to other people." McQueen said that interested customers should email sales@geonum.co.uk. As well as Skype, GCI is not a member of ITSPA. ITSPA's recommendation to its members is that they should allow numbers to be ported or redirected when a user changes provider. ITSPA chairman Eli Katz told ZDNet.co.uk on Monday that this "best practice" recommendation existed because "the regulatory structure today is somewhat complex and in flux" and is, therefore, confusing for consumers and businesses trying to understand their rights.