Stuart Pinfold

Got Your Number... for free!

I've just heard about the new Directory Enquiries service which is free to call and free to use.

Ever since the privatisation of BT's directory service databases in 2003, opening the floodgates for any company to set up such a system, we've been swamped with 118 companies and the trauma of seeing those silly moustached old blokes everywhere.

After paying somewhere around £1 for a minute's call to all the new 118 services (BT itself is the cheapest at 78p for one minute) for the last five years, someone's come up with the idea of offering directory enquiries for free.

The catch? You have to listen to a 20-second advert before you get the number you requested. But, as you're on a free phone call (it's an 0800 number) that doesn't really matter. You can still get a text to your mobile containing the number (and another advert) and all the bells and whistles that come with other similar, paid-for services.

But, hang on, hasn't this been tried before? According to a December 2006 article, 118 118 launched a free-to-use-with-advertising-and-voice-recognition service. I'm guessing, with that combination of 'features', it didn't last very long - as I've never heard of it.

There's been plenty of technological revolutions involving the word 'free' over the past few years - FreeServe launched free dial-up internet (a few years after X-Stream, with their "free internet as long as you install an advertising bar which takes up a third of your screen and you use it after six in the evening and before midnight and don't mind being disconnected every two hours and then putting up with 15 minutes of engaged tone", launched). This week, BT announced that all UK-based weekend calls would become free for all users (for an increase in line rental). Ryanair regularly give away free seats (as long as you pay all the taxes, and don't mind paying £6 to check in at the airport and £12 to put a bag in such as place where it travels below you in the hold instead of above you in the locker).

So, how long before broadband becomes free? Or flights? Or even computers (complete with advertising, of course)? I've noticed that o2 have launched a broadband package which is much cheaper than other companies (as long as you're also on a mobile phone contract with them). Governments are never going to stop charging taxes to fly in or out of countries, although I've long said that it will soon be possible to fly to the other side of the world using only low-cost carriers - say from London to Istanbul, Istanbul to Mumbai, Mumbai to Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta, and then on to Perth, Sydney or New Zealand. I give it another five to ten years before you can do at least half that journey for less than a direct flight on a flag carrier to Sydney.

Don't think you'd want to do all that without having some frills, though...

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