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end of parallel running conference call #5 |
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29/08/03
09.00
Attendees:
Alex Campbell (Oftel) (Notes)
Beatrice Osborn (BT Wholesale)
Caroline Wallace (Oftel)
Dave Campbell (Directory Affairs Limited DAL)
Dirk Amstberg (Telegate)
Ian Watson (BT Directories)
Gareth Morgan (BT Directories)
Howard Sanden (Directory Enquiries UK)
Kelly Faulkner (O2)
Steve Warner (Share Communications)
Tom Hickey (Conduit)
Agenda:
1. Minutes of previous meetings
2. Update from DAL
3. Update from operators / DQ service providers
4. Press / AOB
1. Minutes of previous conference calls
DA has noted that under the report from BT, CW had asked whether BT
had an increase of calls to 100 and BT said there were no elevated
levels of calls to 100. DA also noted that he had asked Oftel and
BT to consider a change to BT's 192 message in light of complaints
he had received from consumers about the length and nature of the
message.
BMO clarified that, regarding the problem with CPS customers' 192
traffic, the actual problem was that CPS customers, on dialling 192,
instead of being routed to BT's announcement, had the network address
of the announcement incorrectly passed to their CPS provider, this
would have resulted in NU. The CPS problem was fixed by 17:00 on 26
August.
2. DAL update / call statistics
DC reported no major issues with the DAL platform. It was noted that
Orange's IDQ number had been removed from the DAL carousel on Tuesday
as per the previous conference call's discussions, and that it had
been put back on the carousel on Wednesday around 4pm (after the Orange
IDQ service had become available again).
DC said that the figures for calls to 192 messages on the DAL platform
were as follows: Tuesday 108,000 Wednesday 83,000 and Thursday 72,500.
For calls to 153 messages the figures were: Tues 3174 Weds 2746 and
Thurs 2439.
AC commented that it was perhaps surprising that the numbers were
dropping off already. DC said the numbers were certainly less than
the system had been designed for. BMO said that following the 'big
number' change there was another peak on the following Monday (the
week after the bank holiday change), perhaps because people were returning
to work and the like, so there might be a further peak on Monday.
KF asked if DAL had conducted any additional auditing of DQ SPs, in
particular with respect of their ability to handle volumes of calls,
as O2 had some concerns about particular service providers (on issues
such as long call holding times).
DC said DAL had not conducted any further auditing and was not certain
that it was within DAL's remit. CW asked if O2 had entered into dialogue
with the DQ SP(s) concerned. KF said that they had not yet, but that
they would do so in addition to raising the matter with Oftel and
ICSTIS.
BMO had issued summary statistics to the DQ IWG (via Oftel). The statistics
showed the number of calls to BT's 192 RIDE platform as a percentage
against the total number of calls to 118XXX on BT's network. The figures
were: Sunday 50% Monday 45% Tuesday 34%. The figures were given with
a 'health warning' as it was impossible to say how many of the 192
callers for example were repeat calls. The total number of 118XXX
calls included both successful and unsuccessful calls.
TH queried if the absolute totals could be made available (previously
BT had expressed some concerns about confidentiality). It was noted
that BT reported its total levels of DQ calls to Oftel in its quarterly
market information reports, so it was likely this data would become
available anyway. BMO agreed to discuss further internally at BT and
with Oftel.
DA asked if call handling times would become available, as these might
indicate whether callers were hanging on to hear the whole message
or simply putting the phone down as soon as they heard the start of
the message. BMO said she thought the average call length would be
available and that she would seek to circulate this figure - this
should give an indication of call patterns. TH said that, in terms
of the call length on the DAL platform, the average length was around
17 seconds, suggesting that consumers were typically not hanging on
for the whole length of the call (which was 20 seconds long). It was
noted that the number was repeated three times on the DAL freephone
message and this might be a reason why consumers did not feel the
need to hang on till the end of the call. It was also noted that consumers
might know who the provider was and so, again, not wait until the
end to find out the name of the provider of a particular number.
BT was thanked for the provision of their n/w call data. CW said that
O2 had also been asked to provide figures. A number of DQ SPs said
it would be very useful to have data from operators not on the conference
call. AC said he would put such a request in the covering email to
go out with the minutes.
3) Operator / service provider updates
BMO reported no problems on the BT network, the current volumes were
not testing either interconnects or the intelligent network.
BMO also said that DQ issues were not causing a problem with either
100 or 15X channels.
KF said that she had no additional issues to report back on with regards
to O2 and that calls to customer care centres were lower than expected.
Similarly no DQ SPs had any problems to report on. TH did point out
that there appeared to be a higher than expected number of calls to
the DAL platform from payphone users. IW said that BT had also noticed
this (BT and Conduit are the only two DQ SPs on the DAL payphone message).
It was unclear what might be causing this, a number of factors were
noted such as the number of foreign visitors who might use payphones
(and therefore be unaware of new 118 numbers) and the fact that many
BT payphones currently had notices showing the old 118141 tariff (at
£1.50 per minute) which might be prompting payphone users to
seek alternatives (although 118141 is not being charged at £1.50
per minute any longer).
4) AOB / Press
CW said there were no major press issues to discuss, but that Oftel
might put out a further press release within the next few days, the
DQ IWG would be notified if this happened.
CW said that she had had an issue raised via ICSTIS, with respect
to unusual spellings. In this case a company called 'Akorn' had complained
that they were getting less calls than normal via directory enquiries.
CW had spoken with IW and it appeared that OSIS had a facility to
allow consumers to purchase additional entries for this type of unusual
spelling (e.g. they could have one for Acorn and one for Akorn). CW
understood the cost of this service to customers was £5 per
quarter. It was suggested that DQ SPs could direct any callers with
similar concerns to their network operator to seek such a dual listing.
CW thanked all those who had participated in the conference calls
for their efforts over the recent weeks in helping to ensure the smooth
withdrawal of 192.
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