Reposting my previous post, edited to conform with O2 forum policies:
@chippie
a) The Data service has absolutely nothing to do with this discussion.
b) O2 is neither defrauded nor suffering direct loss from customers' use of forwarding services. Please read my posts above regarding O2's costs... To repeat myself, if I phone 0161-0000001 which is my grandma's home number in Manchester, I can use up all my 400 inclusive minutes and O2's costs are calculated so that O2 ends up with a profit, or in any case does not lose a penny. If I phone 0161-0000002, which is a VoIP local number forwarding to my wife abroad, again I can use up all my minutes and it will not cost O2 a penny more than calling my grandma did.
So it's not losses you are talking about, it's money they could have made if they were competitive enough.
But this isn't my real issue here.
Telecom companies are after all profit-making businesses, they are not charities, they are out to make money as they should be.
What concerns me is however that there may be actual individual people out there who have this kind of view regarding the provision of legitimate cheap international phone calls.
In the modern, 21st century world, there are many telecom companies offering affordable communication to those that need it most in an increasingly globalised world - i.e. friends and families separated by thousands of miles, perhaps for months at a time. Husbands and wives, parents and children, who may be located on opposite corners of the world as circumstances have it, and who find immense comfort in communicating as much as possible with their loved ones, hearing their voices after a hard day's work and knowing they are doing well and waiting for them back home...
If there is any person who believes that access to these godsend and very much legitimate services should be prohibited, especially when such access is gained by 100% legitimate means and does not cause anybody any loss (refer to my point (b) above), then such a person knows nothing about what it feels like to have one's family living so far away from them and the amazing feeling of comfort and happiness it gives to be able to afford frequent phone calls to them... or perhaps such a person would be able to afford international phone calls at any rate and wouldn't have financial worries like the rest of us!
