View Full Version : 11 88 88 quietly puts up costs
Don't you hate it when companies quietly put up their costs without telling you? Just for everyone's convenience I thought I'd let you all know that my illustrious employers have increased their charges for the directory enquiry service.
We are now 20p per minute (charged by the second, minimum charge 10p) with a 25p connection fee. To clarify, the connection fee is to be connected to the operator, not the person or company you're looking for. So a 30 second call would be 35p, a 60 second call is 45p etc etc.
Gits!
Thanks for the info.
Very good of you to let us in on that one ... :) Wonder what The Number (118 118) are charging now? They'll have to pay for that ad campaign sooner or later.
grum1978
04-11-2003, 18:53
Ntl's is still the same 118 878 40p per call for up to 2 searches!!
philip.j.fry
04-11-2003, 19:20
They'll have to pay for that ad campaign sooner or later.
Yes, they should be made to pay!! :D
lynx2oo2
04-11-2003, 19:31
Just used a public (bt) phone, tried 118118, laughed when the screen on payphone told me that this number was barred,
now this number is also barred on ntl home phones, so - where are 118118 getting all there customers from if two of the uk's biggest telco's bar the number?
philip.j.fry
04-11-2003, 20:06
Just used a public (bt) phone, tried 118118, laughed when the screen on payphone told me that this number was barred,
now this number is also barred on ntl home phones, so - where are 118118 getting all there customers from if two of the uk's biggest telco's bar the number?
Why are the numbers barred? Wouldn't this be a violation of the competition laws?
poolking
04-11-2003, 21:08
Very good of you to let us in on that one ... :) Wonder what The Number (118 118) are charging now? They'll have to pay for that ad campaign sooner or later.
Nothing has been heard lately about them allegedly giving out wrong numbers on purpose to get bonuses? Or was that just the usual media digging at what appears to be a successful company?
Still don't know why they changed from 192.
poolking
04-11-2003, 21:30
Still don't know why they changed from 192.
To break BTs monopoly on the 192 service and to open it up to competitors.
To break BTs monopoly on the 192 service and to open it up to competitors.And what was this supposed to achieve ?
Actually, if I dialled 192 on an NTL phone did I connect to BT ? I'm pretty certain that when I did it on my mobile I got connected to orange, not BT.
grum1978
04-11-2003, 21:51
Just used a public (bt) phone, tried 118118, laughed when the screen on payphone told me that this number was barred,
now this number is also barred on ntl home phones, so - where are 118118 getting all there customers from if two of the uk's biggest telco's bar the number?
AFAIK it is not barred from ntl lines anymore :)
poolking
04-11-2003, 21:51
And what was this supposed to achieve ?
Actually, if I dialled 192 on an NTL phone did I connect to BT ? I'm pretty certain that when I did it on my mobile I got connected to orange, not BT.
Yes, but as far as I'm aware everyone purchased their lists from BT.
Yes, but as far as I'm aware everyone purchased their lists from BT.Surely when I used to dial 192 on NTL and asked for the number of another NTL subscriber then there was no involvement of BT in the process at all ?
Anyway, that was just a side observation. My real question was what was the opening it up of 192 to 118xxx actually supposed to achieve (apart from confusing the hell out of everybody ;)) There must have been some reasoning behind it.
poolking
04-11-2003, 22:10
Surely when I used to dial 192 on NTL and asked for the number of another NTL subscriber then there was no involvement of BT in the process at all ?
Anyway, that was just a side observation. My real question was what was the opening it up of 192 to 118xxx actually supposed to achieve (apart from confusing the hell out of everybody ;)) There must have been some reasoning behind it.
As I already said to open up the directory enquiry service to competition.
To break BTs monopoly on the 192 service and to open it up to competitors.Yup, I'm really happy with the outcome....:rolleyes:
The Diplomat
04-11-2003, 22:54
My latest ntl bill envelope has a big ad. for their service on it....
Save 25% with ntl against 118 118
Based on an average call duration of 30 seconds
118 878 40p per call
118 118 49p per connection plus 9p per minute
Prices correct as of 28th August 2003.
Back in the good old days ....
BT owned the 'white pages'. This is the list of all normal, ex-directory and DND numbers within the UK. This is when BT were IT in the telephone market.
The access to the 'White Pages' (Phonebase/PhoneDisc) was strictly controlled, and anyone who wanted a copy of these were generally given a diluted subset of the data.
Companies that needed this data complained to OFTEL, who couldn't really do anything at the time.
Along came NTL, Telewest, etc etc, after the government opened up the telcoms market. However, BT still had the majority of users, and the 'White Pages'. Other telecoms companies had to request BT to add numbers to the Phone book, but also kept their own users in a database. As you can see the market was getting segmented.
BT tried to keep the 'White Pages' to themselves for as long as possible, but in the end OFTEL declared that this was unfair and it had to be shared.
Now you end up with the situation we have now. Because the 'White pages' are available to companies, they all believe they can offer a better service than BT.
We shall see who's left in 2 years time :D
Scarlett
05-11-2003, 12:49
Back in the good old days ....
BT owned the 'white pages'. This is the list of all normal, ex-directory and DND numbers within the UK. This is when BT were IT in the telephone market.
The access to the 'White Pages' (Phonebase/PhoneDisc) was strictly controlled, and anyone who wanted a copy of these were generally given a diluted subset of the data.
Companies that needed this data complained to OFTEL, who couldn't really do anything at the time.
Along came NTL, Telewest, etc etc, after the government opened up the telcoms market. However, BT still had the majority of users, and the 'White Pages'. Other telecoms companies had to request BT to add numbers to the Phone book, but also kept their own users in a database. As you can see the market was getting segmented.
BT tried to keep the 'White Pages' to themselves for as long as possible, but in the end OFTEL declared that this was unfair and it had to be shared.
Now you end up with the situation we have now. Because the 'White pages' are available to companies, they all believe they can offer a better service than BT.
We shall see who's left in 2 years time :D
But it was the EU that told oftel to do this rather than Oftel getting off there own back and doing it. Looking at the prices out there, its pretty obivious that BT were already charging the cheapest price they could anyway so deregulation didn't do much for us.
118118 charge a 1 off 58p initial connection charge for the first minute, then 9p a minute there after for as many numbers as you like. They can also give out train times, hotel information, cinema listings, driving directions etc... all included in the price. And if your on a mobile they can text you the number too.
Just fyi of course :)
i resent paying by the minute as the longer it takes the more you pay. Presumably the delay would be because they can't find the number. Why should the consumer pay for that? Surely a pay by call system is fairer?
You used to be able to do a "UK Phonebook" lookup on NTL Interactive - but like a lot of the useful Interactive content, that's long gone - is there ANYTHING worth risking STB crashes for on Interactive now?
You could alternatively use www.ukphonebook.com
Macca371
19-10-2004, 00:36
Cheeky scroats! There should be some consumer right to know about price increases.
Richard M
19-10-2004, 07:38
www.yell.com is good for businesses.
etccarmageddon
19-10-2004, 08:39
We are now 20p per minute (charged by the second, minimum charge 10p) with a 25p connection fee. To clarify, the connection fee is to be connected to the operator, not the person or company you're looking for. So a 30 second call would be 35p, a 60 second call is 45p etc etc.
what was the old price/rate?
Loadsa details (inc pricing) here:
http://www.newdirectoryenquiries.com/
Anyway, that was just a side observation. My real question was what was the opening it up of 192 to 118xxx actually supposed to achieve (apart from confusing the hell out of everybody ;)) There must have been some reasoning behind it.
IIRC, The given reason was, as poolking says, to open the market to competition, and, also (as I read in a newspaper) to simplify the choice for customers. Although how going from one operating company with three digit number to multiple operating companies with six digit numbers simplifies the choice for customers is beyond me.
One thing that has become easier. Charging customers more. OK, so 11 88 88 charges 20p per minute. What's to stop them taking more than 1 minute to find one number? At least when phoning 192, you were charged for the enquiry.
You could argue that some of the DQ providers have added extra services (such as lists of local hotels, train times etc), but they charge for this. Most (if not all) of the information they give is available on the web. Usually free.
Edit: There is a good article on these services in general at the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3590090.stm
Also, there is a good site that tracks DQ providers, http://www.118tracker.com. It also compares costs for all services at http://www.118tracker.com/118-costs.shtml
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