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Chapter 1- Background

1.1 In its 2004/05 Annual Plan, Ofcom stated that one of its key operating priorities was to carry out further monitoring and review of the performance of 118 directory enquiry (DQ) services in conjunction with the Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services (ICSTIS). Ofcom supports Oftel's decision to liberalise the DQ market, but recognises that this is an area which has attracted a significant level of attention and criticism from the media, consumer groups and the public particularly after the legacy 192 and 153 numbers were switched off on 24 August 2003.

1.2 Following public consultation with the Industry and with other stakeholders, including consumer representatives, Oftel decided in 2001 to liberalise the DQ market, using the 118 XXX number range. Until then, each network operator had provided its own service, largely on 192 for national DQ and 153 for international DQ. Oftel's aim in liberalising the market was to introduce competition between DQ providers, by allowing consumers on each network to have a choice of which DQ service to call, all of which would be available via numbers of the same length, to avoid unfair advantages to some DQ providers. The first public stage in the introduction of the new services was in December 2002, when services on the new 118 XXX numbers began operating in parallel with the legacy 192/153 numbers. On 24 August 2003 the period of parallel running ended, after which the legacy numbers could be used only to provide information about the new services, rather than a DQ service itself.

Mystery shopping exercise, Autumn 2003

1.3 In October and November 2003 Oftel and ICSTIS carried out a preliminary evaluation of the impact of DQ liberalisation, assessing the usage, quality and delivery of the new services. In addition to the core services of providing telephone number information, the research looked at a range of additional services, for example number text-back and onward call connection. The report, Evaluation of Directory Enquiry services ^(-1-) , covered the results of both a mystery shopping exercise and a consumer awareness survey. It found that overall in 62% of cases correct information was given by the 30 DQ providers tested.

Mystery shopping exercise, Spring 2004

1.4 Early in 2004 Ofcom and ICSTIS decided to repeat this research. While the autumn 2003 research had examined the value-added services such as text-back and onward call connection, these did not raise any particular issues in that research and Ofcom concluded that the report should focus, in the mystery shopping exercise, on accuracy and pricing for the provision of standard residential and business UK numbers, which are the two areas of greatest interest for users of the services.

1.5 In designing the mystery shopping research, Ofcom and ICSTIS have taken into account comments from stakeholders on the previous methodology used by Oftel and ICTSIS. In particular, the revised methodology has incorporated a "real world" weighted profile of calls, which takes into account the relative frequency of requests for business and residential, numbers, and was designed to include "easy" and "difficult" requests. By weighting the data to take into account estimated market share, the level of accuracy of information provided for standard residential and business UK numbers was 83% and 87% respectively.

1.6 There is much narrower spread of accuracy among the providers. Ofcom regards this as very encouraging, and likely to provide residential and business consumers with greater confidence in using DQ services.

1.7Ofcom had examined what action could be taken if the results had indicated the need for any specific regulatory action. DQ services meet the regulatory definition of 'controlled premium rate services', and ICSTIS, as the regulator for such services, publishes a Code of Practice which DQ providers must observe. ICSTIS has wide-ranging powers, within the existing regulatory framework to place additional requirements on DQ providers.

1.8 In view of the accuracy and service levels reported in this wave of mystery shopping, Ofcom considers that there is no need at this stage to introduce any further regulatory measures. In terms of further research, Ofcom and ICSTIS plan to undertake a similar exercise. Given the limited comparability, because of the changes in methodology, between the November 2003 research and the April 2004 research, this will be an opportunity to compare performance and examine any trends on a like-for-like basis.

1.9This research was a joint venture between Ofcom and ICSTIS, and comprised two phases of research conducted between March and April 2004.

• mystery shopping assessing the quality and delivery of DQ services and suppliers, conducted by MORI ^(-2-) ; and
• residential consumers' usage and attitudes towards DQ services, conducted by NOP ^(-3-) .

1.10 This report covers:

• accuracy of DQ service provision;
• DQ service cost and time comparisons;
• impact of DQ liberalisation on consumers' DQ usage; and
• consumer interest and use of the new range of additional 'enhanced' DQ services.

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Footnotes:

1:- http://www.ofcom.org.uk/static/archive/oftel/
publications/consumer/2003/dqresearch1103.pdf

2:- The study was designed to reflect the 'real world' profile of calls to directory enquiry services. As requests for business numbers make up around 87% of the average call profile to directory services, residential requests were over-sampled in the survey to produce a sufficiently robust sample to allow analysis of these results. The combined results were re-weighted to be representative of the average call profile in terms of requests for business and residential numbers, consequently the overall results closely resemble those for business number requests. All data shown is weighted data. Unweighted base sizes are shown on charts and tables to show the number of requests made. The error margins illustrated in some charts are based on the 99% level of confidence.

3:- UK omnibus survey amongst 1075 adults aged 15 plus, representative of the adult population in terms of region, age, gender, and socio-economic group. Because the survey was conducted amongst a sample of adults, rather than the whole population, the data is subject to margins of error in the region of 2-3%. All data shown is weighted data. Unweighted base sizes are shown on charts and tables to show the number of people who were asked the question. Results referred to as 'significantly' different, have been tested at the 95% level of confidence and hence are outside of the error margins and therefore can be considered real changes

The report should not be seen as recommending best buys and should not therefore be relied upon when making decisions. Ofcom has conducted its own checks on the data in this report and whilst we consider it to be correct, Ofcom accepts no liability in respect of any of the results provided to it by MORI or any decisions taken by any person in reliance on the report.

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