Directory enquiries: UK 'not interested in price'

NEWS Consumers don't care about how good a service is when using directory enquiries services - they're led by advertising, a new report from communications watchdog Ofcom and premium rate service regulator Icstis has found.

The research found 24 per cent of consumers only chose their DQ service provider because they remembered the number from an advert, while 17 per cent picked their chosen provider because the number was easy to remember and another 16 per cent thought they were getting through to the old 192 service on a new number.

Those who chose a particular directory enquiry number because they expected good or cheap service were in the minority - four per cent because they were "the best" and two per cent because of their accuracy and just two per cent picked their DQ provider because they were cheap,

It's unsurprising only a tiny proportion of users consider the service to be cheap - most DQ users believe that costs have risen significantly since the old 192 service was canned.

The average perceived cost for a call to the old-style 192 from a fixed line is 30p, while the same call to a 118 number is thought to be 48p. While consumers are right to believe costs have gone up since deregulation, the prices are lower than the perception.

The real average cost to call a 118 is 50p, while the same call to its 192 predecessor cost 50p.

Since the market was opened up in August 2003, the service championed by moustachioed athletes, 118 118, is still top of the table in the DQ league as the number people are most aware of.

118 118 and BT's 118 500 were pegged as the services most used by UK consumers, however, usage of 118 DQ services overall is continuing to drop at a rate of knots.

"In May 2002... self-reported use of DQ services was 69 per cent. This had fallen slightly to 66 per cent in October 2003. However, since then, the fall in DQ usage appears to have accelerated, falling nine percentage points to 57 per cent in April 204 and a further nine percentage points to 48 per cent 2004," the report said.

A separate report from the National Audit Office into the directory enquiries market has questioned whether consumers have genuinely benefited from the market's liberalisation.

"Market research confirmed that callers were confused after the introduction of 118 services There is now a higher level of awareness of the introduction of 118 numbers but continuing uncertainty over which services offer the best price," the report says.

"The average caller is unlikely to be motivated to find the lowest price so the market is not driven by price competition... Ofcom cannot yet demonstrate that, overall, consumers have benefited from liberalisation."