Cheapest 118 Directory Enquiry services - Ofcom call costs announced 31/12/09

Cheapest 118 Directory Enquiry services - Ofcom call costs announced 31/12/09

Since the deregulation of the former 192 service, there have been over 505 applications to host a service from a total possible 999. Some providers have not launched and some have gone out of business.

The full list is available @ http://www.telecom-tariff.co.uk/dialdirq.htm

Incidentally, 999 for the emergency services was in fact the first non-geographic number to be allocated in 1937 but it wasn't available for everyone to ring until 1963. Now there are a whole suite of Non-Geographic Telephone Numbers such as 0800, 0845, 0844, etc and 111 was launched recently in November 2009 for charities

So, without further a do, the results are in and it would appear that the winner happens to be 118214, a service costing just 20p/min. Of course its a little difficult to compare some services as they happen to have different set up costs and in some cases some providers can be up to twice as much as BT.

Awareness of different providers is relatively and advertisng expenditure is always very high to improve awareness. A recent study by the regulating body Ofcom revealed the folowing

1) While spontaneous awareness of DQ providers/numbers has fallen overall, it has increased amongst DQ users. Prompted awareness is unchanged

2) All other DQ providers are mentioned by 10% or less of respondents.
Self reported use of DQ services continues to decline

3) Over nine out of ten consumers only use one DQ number.

4) The Number's 118 118 (41%) and BT's 118 500 (26%) are the two most commonly used DQ providers.

5) Most consumers (62%) are satisfied with their chosen provider. A minority (12%) are dissatisfied.

6) Mobile customers are more satisfied than fixed customers (77% and 62%).

7) BT 118 500 landline users are more satisfied than landline users of The Number's 118 118 (Fixed line: 73% vs 62%)


41% of fixed line DQ users do not know what their chosen DQ provider charges to provide a UK telephone number.

Among those that mention a price, the average is 48p - close to the actual weighted average price of 50p.

Just over a half of UK adults are aware that prices vary between DQ providers, and just over a third that some DQ providers offer different services to others - unchanged since April 2004.

Of the additional services provided, none show growth in self-reported usage but consumers do show more potential interest in future usage of these

The main reasons mentioned for using a particular DQ provider are:

1. advertising recall (24%)
2. ease of remembering the number (17%)
3. perception that the number used was the new BT service (17%)
4. it is the only known service (16%)
5. The service provision itself is a secondary consideration:
6. cheap (3%)
7. the best (4%)
8. accurate (2%)
9. Accuracy of 118 DQ services broadly unchanged

118 numbers are perceived to be more costly per call than 192 (57% fixed line users/44% mobile users), especially in the case of fixed line calls. This is in part driven by a perception amongst consumers of calls to 192 being cheaper than they actually were (perceived cost to call 192 being 30p compared to the actual cost of 40p).