Premium rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers that are regulated by a particular country or region e.g., 1-900 (USA and Canada) and 0909 (UK). These numbers are regulated to ensure certain community standards are adhered to both in terms of content and price. The charge is presented as part of the normal telephone bill.

By far the most common service provided using premium rate numbers are adult chat lines aka phone sex.

These telephone numbers are usually allocated from a national numbering plan in such a way that they are easily distinguished from other numbers. Telcos typically offer blocking services to allow telephone customers to prevent access to these number ranges from their telephones.

Using international rate calls as premium rate numbers

As an alternative to official premium rate numbers, service operators have been known to use kickbacks from high-rate international call tariffs to charge for their services. In these cases, the calls may never leave the country of origin, even though the number has a prefix specifying a country with high incoming call rates.

Since these kinds of numbers have confused international jurisdiction, they are also sometimes used for fraud.

See also: teletraffic, telephony billing