ray@gec-mi-at.co.uk (John Ray) (10/15/90)
British Telecom (BT) here in the UK have announced the introduction of charges for the first time for the Directory Enquiry Service effective from April 2nd, 1991. At the same time call costs are being reduced by an average of six per cent. BT state that over 800 million calls a year are made to Directory Enquiries. The Directory Enquiry service costs 250 million pounds a year to run, the cost being shared by all subscribers (estimated at ten pounds a year). BT claim only a quarter of these subscribers use the service including credit and telemarketing companies. Here are the salient points as extracted from the October 90 BT inhouse magazine "Telecom Today". All prices are quoted in Sterling (for USA readers, current exchange rate is $1.94 to the pound). UK and International Directory Enquiry Calls will cost 37.8p (43.5p including VAT). Call Unit price will be reduced from 4.4p (5.06p including VAT) to 4.2p (4.83p including VAT). Blind and Disabled users will continue to get free Directory Service (using a special phone number of 195) and will be registered with their own PIN ID number. The service is to be run from a special centre in Sheffield and will eventually employ 500 staff. Payphones will continue to have free calls to Directory Enquiries as well as private rented payphones on the Payphone Line classification. For business users, two new services have been introduced. Phone Base is accessed via modem and terminal/computer and provides access to the phone number database. No subscription are charged, the cost of the call varies from 6p a minute (Cheap rate) to 13p a minute (peak rate). Also announced is a CD-ROM subscription service. For 2,200 pounds a year the CD-ROM's are updated quarterly and provide all UK numbers for those users suitably equipped. John Ray |Phone : +44 727 836421 x4713 Marconi Instruments Ltd |Fax : +44 727 839447 (Gp3) Longacres |UUCP : ..!mcsun!ukc!hrc63!miduet!ray ST ALBANS Herts |NRS : ray@gec-mi-at.co.uk AL4 0JN |Packet Radio (AX25) : G8DZH @ GB7ESX England