Yes it's TRUE I investigated using a service by cardboardfish (NextGen Mobile LTD) BUT it would appear that because it relies on using an 07624 that some operators charge any text as if it was being sent "internationally" at 20-25p - my operator "3" charged me more than expected. This might be OK if it was made clear somewhere BUT it isn't!!

It would like like a real grey area that some companies may be making the most of??

The 07624 range is the range for manx mobiles (isle of man) it is classified as international as the isle of man has its own government, currency and laws. Although it is part of the UK due to the fact that most of its laws were british, it is still an international country. It has its own parliament, Tynwald, the oldest in the world. Sorry but it is not necessarily the companies taking advantage, rather a harsh reality. Its the same for us who live here, we get charged international rates to ring the UK, so it works both ways, and believe me, its more expensive!!!

Dave - the point is international calls should have a different country code otherwise consumers don't know they're making an international call.

the twitter number is 07624 and charges me on t mobile internationally. :(

"The 07624 UK number range is operated by Manx Telecom — the Isle of Man telecoms company"

Firstly, 07624 is an Isle of Man number, not a UK number.

"For some reason, T-Mobile customers and Three customers are being charged international rates to send text messages to that block of numbers"

Because it's an international number, not a UK number.

"Surely it’s a bit naughty for these operators to classify a number range that you, I and anyone else would recognise as thoroughly ‘British’ as an international rate text?"

The Isle of Man may be "British" (a crown dependency, I think) but it's not part of the UK.

07624 is not even in the ranges used by any other mobile providers (which start 075, 077, 078, 079), in fact 076 is otherwise allocated to UK pagers, some of them charge more than 07624!

Maybe you should do some research on telephone numbering before dialling numbers unaware of the potential charges. If you don't like the otherwise free Twitter service, then you don't have to use it. Use another site instead.

As for "the point is international calls should have a different country code otherwise consumers don't know they're making an international call" - then you should bring this up with Oftel and the ITU. It's nothing to do with Twitter.

It's not just +44 numbers that are affected. In North America, the country code 1 is shared by Canada, the USA and many Caribbean nations.