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New price cap on 118 numbers

01 April 2019

We were shocked by steep rises in directory enquiry prices – services still used by a million people in the UK every year. Many of these people are elderly. Some companies have charged almost £20 for a 90-second call to these services, with a 90-second call to the most popular service, 118 118, previously costing £11.23.

Ofcom research estimates that every year, around 450,000 people were paying a combined total of £2.4m more than they expected for these calls, with some struggling to pay their bills.

So, we’re pleased to see Ofcom acting to cap the maximum cost a 118 service can charge at £3.65 per 90 seconds. This will bring prices back to the levels they were at in 2012, and closer to what people have told us they expect to pay for using these services.

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