BT tops 118 enquiries chart

A mystery shopping survey of the 92 new 118 directory enquiries numbers has found improved levels of service across the sector, with BT coming out top.

The average waiting time to answer a 118 call was four seconds, but 13 per cent of providers had an engaged line at least once during the monthly study by 118tracker.com.

The study reveals huge discrepancies in the cost of the new DQ services with the cheapest costing just 20p compared to £1.84 for the most expensive service. Ironically, both of those are both use offshore call centres.

But BT topped the overall chart, which measures the 118 services for the consistency of greeting, knowledge and accuracy. The BT-owned Citrus Telecom 118424 and Eurotel 118008 numbers took the top two spots, scoring almost 90 per cent for overall quality of service.

The opening up of the DQ market to competition has come in for increasing criticism, with analyst Butler Group claiming the switch has been an "unmitigated disaster". Last month an Oftel report hit out at the levels of service from the new 118 numbers, which led to calls for action from MPs.

That was followed by Thus pulling the plug on its 118 number in November after receiving only 25,000 calls a month – with a third of residential number queries being handled incorrectly. Analysts predict the number of providers will drop in the next six months.