63336 blog

118 services are still not coming clean about the true cost of directory enquires (DQ) calls. It is an amazing fact that after years of phone regulation it is still mind-boggling difficult to find out the cost of calling a DQ service from a mobile phone.

We have all heard or read statements similar to the one below when looking at an advert promoting a DQ service. 

“Calls to 118118 cost 79p per call, 29p per minute from most landlines. Mobile charges vary”

It’s an official statement, approved by the regulator and it is there to protect the public.  But hang on, what is the cost of making a call from a mobile?

Who uses a BT landline these days?

This is 2009. More and more of us use mobile phones and we don’t ring from a BT landline. From discussions I have had with industry insiders there are upwards of 50% of people calling DQ numbers from mobiles and in some age groups that figure is considerably higher. I have tried to get some evidence of the exact figure but I can’t find it anywhere on the web. Perhaps one of the DQ companies can come on line and tell us the correct figure?

So what is the cost of a call to a DQ service using a mobile phone and why don’t the DQ companies make it clear?

Well I thought I would try and find out how much it would cost. But rather than make the call and wait for the bill to come in I thought it would be good to find out before I made the call.

My thought process went, “I’m going to make a call to a DQ service so I will go on their website and find out the cost”.

Mission impossible

Ahem, it is not that straight forward. Indeed, it is next to impossible. I challenge anyone to find out the cost of mobile call to a 118 number by searching the specific DQ website. Next I rang someone at Yell to ask them what the price was. After a number of escalations within the organisation someone knowledgeable about these matters explained that part of problem is that the price varies by network. Since the prices vary the DQ companies are allowed to state “Refer to network operators for prices”.

So if you want to find out how much it costs you actually have to go to the network operators rather than the DQ companies to find out. That is strange, to say the least. It should not be too complicated for each DQ company to put a simple table showing the prices from each network operator on their website? Anyone would think they didn’t want to show them to us or they were in some way embarrassed?

So, onto the next stage of my search and a visit to the websites of each of the network operators.

In order to keep it all simple and make the comparisons work I chose to find out the prices of just one 118 service. I chose 118118 because back in 2007 they claimed to be the largest DQ suppliers with a market share of 53%.

The search for evidence proved quite difficult and the ease of finding information varied from site to site. I used the various website search engines and tried,  “Cost of a Directory Enquiries call” then, “Cost of a DQ call”  then, “cost of a call to 118118” and then, “Cost of a premium rate call”

Virgin ask you to call the team to find out this information. This call put me in a waiting list where unsurprisingly all of their operators were busy and expected wait time would be 20 minutes. I emailed instead and got an answer 2 days later.

T Mobile told me “for the cost of 118 refer to customer services”. However, a search on customer services brings up 100 hits, none of which is customer services unless you want a job. Eventually I emailed them and they called me back.

The numbers they don’t want to publish

Ok so what were the results? I have tabulated them below

For anyone new to DQ charging models the distinction between the “fixed cost” and the “cost per min” is actually very important. You see DQ services make money by keeping you connected. This is not just through the, “Do you need anything else sir?” but also when they ask, “Would you like us to connect you?” If you say yes the cost per minute keeps on ticking. If you are on T Mobile that clock is ticking at £1.50 per minute. You might only have connected to a standard number, perhaps the dentist or doctor, but all the time you are booking that appointment or describing your symptoms you are incurring a premium rate charge. It is enough to make you ill all over again.

 So what is the message ?

More people call DQ services (and other premium rate services) from a mobile than from BT. It is therefore misleading and inappropriate to quote charges from a BT landline especially when charges from some mobile networks are higher. Cost of calls from mobiles should be on the DQ website and be much more prominent and easy to find. If the pricing structures are too varied and take up too much space the industry should rationalise this. Pricing should be the same across all networks, as it is for texting.

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  • Tags [118, 118118, 63336, Directory enquiries, DQ, Network operators, O2, Orange, PhonePayPlus, Regulation, Virgin, Vodafone, Yell]
  • Categories [Mobile regulation]