Oftel research exposes 118 failures

Telecoms regulator Oftel and supervisory body Icstis have today published their research into the recently deregulated directory enquiries (DQ) market – and have turned up mixed results.

While nine in ten consumers had heard about the change, only four in ten had actually used any of the new 118 numbers.

The research, which used 'mystery shoppers' to investigate DQ providers, showed that none of the services had provided any ex-directory information, but when it came to supplying the information that users requested, the new DQ companies could only manage to give out the right numbers in a pitiful 62 per cent of all cases.

The results were even worse for those requesting numbers outside the UK – only 37 per cent of callers were given the correct details.

The DQ providers fared a little better when it came to making amends for their shortcomings – when complaints were made about shoddy service, eight in ten firms were happy to put their hands in their pockets for a refund – although only half were willing to cough up for the complaints call as well as the original enquiry.

While the move to deregulate the directory enquiries market was supposed to bring more choice and lower prices for consumers, the reality seems to have failed to live up to the regulator's dream.

Analyst house Butler Group believes the move away from 192 has helped no-one except advertising agencies.

"The move to 118 DQ services is, without doubt, an unmitigated disaster. There is no evidence that the introduction of 'competition' has delivered better value and services for the customer, just the reverse in fact," said a Butler Group statement.

Paul Whiteing, deputy director of Icstis, acknowledged that the industry wasn't up to scratch. "At this stage, the overall level of performance of directory enquiry service providers is not as good as it could be especially in relation to levels of accuracy...I hope this research will act as a spur to individual companies to improve the accuracy of their services," he said in a statement.

He added that both Oftel and Icstis would be talking to the various companies to see how they would go about providing a better service to consumers.