Property Inspector — Telephony Service Terms and Regulatory Notice
1. What this document is, and when it applies
1.1 This notice sets out the terms on which MBGW Limited (MBGW, we) provides telephone service — a telephone number, the ability to make and receive calls over the public telephone network, and the call recording of who called whom and for how long — to a subscriber (you) as part of a Property Inspector workspace. It forms part of the Terms of Service.
1.2 It applies only if you take a telephone line. Property Inspector can be used in full without one. Internal calls between desks in your workspace do not touch the public telephone network and are not affected by most of this notice; section 4 (emergency calls) is the exception you should read even if you never make an outside call.
1.3 Where this notice and the Terms of Service conflict on a telephony matter, this notice wins.
1.4 You must accept this notice before a telephone number can be activated on your workspace. We record which version you accepted and when.
2. Who provides what
2.1 MBGW provides the telephone service to you. We operate the telephone system (the PBX), hold the number on your behalf, apply your spending controls, and bill you.
2.2 MBGW does not own the telephone network. Numbers and connectivity to the public telephone network are obtained from an upstream communications provider, currently Twilio, and for some workspaces sipgate. A change of upstream provider is not a change to this notice and does not require your agreement, provided your number and service are unaffected.
2.3 In providing telephone numbers and access to the public telephone network, MBGW is a communications provider for the purposes of the Communications Act 2003, and Ofcom's General Conditions of Entitlement apply to the telephone service. MBGW provides the service to you in its own name, using an upstream provider (clause 2.2) for numbers and connectivity to the network. This notice is written to meet the General Conditions' requirements on contract information, emergency access, number portability and complaints handling.
3. Contract information
3.1 The charges for the telephone service — the monthly charge for the number, and the per-minute rates for calls — are those shown in your subscriber portal at the time you activate the line, and are ex-VAT unless stated.
3.2 The telephone service runs for the same term as your subscription and ends with it. There is no separate minimum term for a number unless stated at activation.
3.3 Call rates can change. We will give you at least 30 days' notice of an increase to a published rate. Rates for destinations you have never called may change without notice.
3.4 Ofcom's General Conditions give consumers and small businesses (broadly, those with no more than ten employees) additional protections, including a pre-contract summary and rights on contract changes. The Terms of Service are business-only (clause 14.1). The telephone service is offered to businesses of any size, including those with ten or fewer employees, and MBGW applies those protections to every subscriber rather than distinguishing by headcount. This section, together with the published price list and your order, is the contract summary: what you are buying, what it costs, how long it lasts and how it ends.
4. 🚨 Emergency calls — 999 and 112
Read this section. It is the most important part of this notice, and you must make sure everyone who uses a telephone on your workspace understands it.
4.1 You can dial 999 and 112 from any desk on your workspace, whether or not that desk is otherwise permitted to make outside calls. If you dial 911 by habit, the call is placed to 999. Emergency calls are never refused because a spending limit has been reached.
4.2 This is not a traditional telephone line, and emergency calls will NOT work in the following circumstances:
- during a power cut, where the device, network equipment or internet connection has no power;
- when your internet connection is down, unavailable or too congested to carry a call;
- when the device is switched off, not logged in, or the app is closed;
- when your subscription is suspended — a suspended workspace's telephones are disconnected;
- during a fault or maintenance affecting our service or our upstream provider.
4.3 You must keep another way of calling the emergency services available at all times — in practice, a mobile telephone. Do not rely on this service as your only means of contacting the emergency services.
4.4 Caller location. When you dial 999 or 112, the location passed to the emergency operator is the registered address you have given us for the workspace. It is not your actual location at the time of the call, and it will be wrong if you are calling from anywhere else — a site visit, a vehicle, home, or abroad. The emergency operator may not be able to find you if you cannot say where you are.
4.5 You must tell us immediately if the registered address changes, and you must keep it accurate. You can update it in the subscriber portal. An out-of-date address is a genuine danger to whoever makes the call.
4.6 Because the service can be used from anywhere with an internet connection, it is nomadic. You must not use it in a way that suggests to a user that emergency location information is accurate when it is not.
4.7 We do not charge for calls to 999 or 112.
4.8 Emergency calls are carried to the emergency operator by our upstream provider (clause 2.2) over the public telephone network. The call presents the telephone number it is made from, and the registered emergency address held against that number (clause 4.4) is what the operator receives. The service does not provide the emergency SMS service or a text relay service for people who cannot make a voice call; those are available through UK mobile networks (Relay UK, and the emergencySMS service for registered users), which is a further reason to keep a mobile telephone available (clause 4.3). This service is not a replacement for a traditional telephone line, and you must not present it to your staff as one.
5. Your telephone number
5.1 A number activated on your workspace is allocated to you for use with the service for as long as you keep the service. You do not own it. Telephone numbers are a national resource administered by Ofcom and are allocated to communications providers, not to end users.
5.2 Geographic numbers have geographic meaning. A number with an area code (for example an Ipswich 01473 number) is associated with that area. You should not take a geographic number for an area in which you have no presence, and you must not use one in a way that misleads people about where your business is.
5.3 You must not use a number for anything other than your own business communications. In particular you must not resell it, sub-allocate it to another business, or use it for any service that requires a different kind of number.
5.4 If you stop using the service, or your subscription ends, the number is released back to the upstream provider and may be reallocated to somebody else after the applicable quarantine period. Once released it cannot be recovered. If you want to keep the number, port it out before the service ends (section 6).
6. Moving a number in or out (porting)
6.1 Porting out. You may move your number to another communications provider. Ask the gaining provider to start the port; they will contact us. We will not obstruct or delay a valid porting request.
6.2 We do not charge you to port a number out, and our upstream provider does not charge us for it.
6.3 Porting in. We can accept a UK geographic or mobile number ported in from another provider on request, subject to the upstream provider's coverage of the number's range. Ask support before you give notice to your current provider: we will confirm whether the number can be ported and what we need from you (normally a letter of authority and a recent bill for the number).
6.4 A port cannot be completed while the account is in arrears, or while the number is subject to a dispute.
6.5 Porting takes time and is coordinated between providers; a UK port typically completes within two to four weeks of a complete request. We will tell you the expected date once the gaining or losing provider confirms it.
6.6 Do not cancel your service before a port completes. Cancelling releases the number (clause 5.4) and the port will fail.
7. Calling Line Identification (caller ID)
7.1 Outgoing calls present a number that identifies your workspace. Where you have a number on the workspace, that is the number presented.
7.2 You must not present, ask us to present, or attempt to cause the presentation of a number that you are not entitled to use, or that does not identify you. Deliberately presenting a misleading number is unlawful and we will treat it as a serious breach.
7.3 A caller may withhold their number on a call-by-call basis using the usual network prefix. Withholding has no effect on calls to 999 or 112, where the number and registered address are always passed.
8. Charges, spending controls and suspension
8.1 Outside calls are charged per minute at the rates shown in your portal, by destination. Internal calls between desks are not charged.
8.2 Your workspace has a spending control. Depending on how your account is funded, this is either a monthly limit set by MBGW or a prepaid balance. When the limit is reached or the balance is exhausted, outside calls stop. Internal calls continue.
8.3 Calls are rated after they complete. A call may briefly hold up the resumption of outside calling while it is being priced. This is not a fault.
8.4 We may stop outside calling immediately, without notice, where we reasonably suspect fraud, compromise of your account, or a pattern of calls that risks a large unexpected bill. We will tell you as soon as we practicably can.
8.5 You remain responsible for all calls made from your workspace, including calls made by anyone who gains access to it. Keep your accounts secure and remove users promptly.
8.6 Calls to premium rate (09) numbers are barred and cannot be enabled. Calls to 084, 087 and 118 numbers are barred by default and can be enabled per desk in the portal; they are charged at higher rates.
8.7 International calling is off by default and is enabled per desk, and only for the destinations permitted on your workspace.
9. Using the service properly
9.1 You must not use the telephone service to make nuisance, silent, abandoned or automated marketing calls, or to operate a dialler, call centre or bulk calling operation. Direct marketing by telephone is regulated by the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 and you are responsible for your own compliance, including screening against the Telephone Preference Service.
9.2 You must not use the service in a way that is fraudulent, abusive, harassing, or that artificially inflates traffic to any number.
9.3 Recording calls. If you record calls, you are responsible for doing so lawfully — including telling people, having a lawful basis under data protection law, and keeping recordings securely. MBGW does not record the content of your calls. See clause 10.1 for what we do record.
9.4 Breach of this section may result in immediate suspension of outside calling.
10. Call records and privacy
10.1 We record, for every call: the calling and called numbers, the date, time and duration, the direction, how it ended, and the charge. We do not record the content of calls. These records are needed to bill you, to investigate faults and disputes, and to meet our legal obligations.
10.2 Call records are personal data. How we handle them is set out in the Privacy Notice, and where we process them on your behalf, in the Data Processing Agreement. Retention is covered by the Data Retention and Backup Policy.
10.3 We may be required to disclose call records, or to assist with interception or the retention of communications data, under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 or on lawful request. Where we are permitted to tell you, we will.
10.4 Your upstream provider also holds call records as part of carrying the call. It is listed in the Sub-processor List.
11. Service quality and availability
11.1 Call quality over an internet connection depends on that connection. We are not responsible for quality problems caused by your internet service, your local network, congestion, or the device.
11.2 The Service Level Agreement applies to the Property Inspector platform, including the telephone system we operate. It does not extend to the public telephone network or to the upstream provider's service, which are outside our control: a fault there is handled under clause 11.1 and section 12, not as an availability failure under the SLA.
11.3 We may need to interrupt the telephone service for maintenance. Planned maintenance follows the notice arrangements in the Service Level Agreement.
12. Complaints
12.1 If something is wrong with your telephone service, contact support@mbgw.co.uk. We will acknowledge your complaint and tell you who is handling it.
12.2 Alternative Dispute Resolution. Ofcom requires communications providers to belong to an approved ADR scheme (Ombudsman Services: Communications, or CISAS) so that consumers and small business customers can take an unresolved complaint there once six weeks have passed without resolution (Ofcom's rule from 8 April 2026), or sooner if we tell you in writing that we cannot resolve it. MBGW is not yet a member of an approved scheme. It will join one before the telephone service is offered to subscribers beyond the operator's own workspaces, and the scheme and how to reach it will be published here in a minor version. Until then an unresolved complaint can be escalated in writing to the contact in section 15, and nothing in this notice removes any right you have in law.
13. Suspension, termination and what happens to your number
13.1 We may suspend the telephone service where you are in breach of this notice, the Acceptable Use Policy or the Terms of Service, where payment is overdue, or where clause 8.4 applies.
13.2 When your subscription ends, for whatever reason, the telephone service ends with it and the number is released (clause 5.4).
13.3 On closure of your account we release every number held for you at the upstream provider before your data is deleted. Nothing in the closure process keeps a number alive for you.
13.4 If you want to keep your number, port it out before the service ends. We cannot recover a released number.
14. Changes to this notice
14.1 We may change this notice. A change that materially reduces your rights or increases your obligations is a major version, and we will ask you to accept it; a change that corrects or clarifies is a minor version and does not require re-acceptance.
14.2 Where we change the telephone service or these terms in a way that is not solely to your benefit, we will give you at least 30 days' notice, and you may end the telephone service without penalty at any time before the change takes effect (Ofcom General Condition C1). Ending the telephone service does not end your Property Inspector subscription.
15. Contact
MBGW Limited, 83 Dales Road, Ipswich IP1 4JR. Company number 08875312. VAT GB204650735. Support and complaints: support@mbgw.co.uk. Data protection: privacy@mbgw.co.uk.