Britain is lagging behind the rest of the wired world in publishing telephone numbers on the Internet.

Searching British Telecom's website is more likely to throw up suggestions of how to recycle old-fashioned paper directories than give numbers electronically.

Britain is now one of the few European countries where the "white pages" are not available online.

Telecommunications companies in France, Germany, Holland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada all offer the service, and in America there are at least four different competing companies in the market, all offering free access.

But in Britain, directory inquiries are provided only by British Telecom (BT), by dialling 192 over the telephone at a charge of 25p a time.

Rival business telephone directories are published, but under licence from BT which owns the copyright in the information.

Database cannot compete

Any company wanting to provide online phone numbers would either have to apply to BT for a licence, or find an alternative way of collecting data, such as buying mailing lists.

The big advantage BT has, of course, is that its customer records are complete and up-to-date - a resource other companies simply cannot match.

Some UK numbers are available through American Internet search engines, but these have not been licensed by BT and do not use its database.

Public consulted on future direction

Oftel, the UK's telephone watchdog, is consulting the public on what kind of directory service it wants.

The consultation period ends on December 31, and formal proposals will be made at some time in the New Year.

In its consultation document (which is available online), director general Don Cruikshank said he recognised that the range of directory services, including Internet access, which are available in other countries are not in the UK.

An Oftel spokeswoman said it wanted to open up the market and provide opportunities for new products.

She added, however, that it was important for customers to be protected from having their personal details published on the Internet if they wanted to remain anonymous.

BT: 'No immediate plans'

But BT spokesman Simon Gordon said the company had no immediate plans to put the phone book online.

"We recognise it would be a valuable service, but it's a question of how it's presented, how it would be charged for, or whether we would charge at all," he said.

Users would have to weigh up the costs of getting numbers over the telephone or the Internet, he said.

"If you're an Internet user, you might be running up more of a bill than if you just rang up Directory Inquiries," he said.

BT has publicised its commitment to the Internet - a section of its annual report is actually titled "Why we're into the Internet".

The company connects a large number of people, acting as an Internet Service Provider, and does offer a free Yellow Pages website, Yell.

Steve Thorpe of the Telecom Users' Association sees one possible way forward after the Oftel review.

"I don't believe that directory inquiries will remain with BT. I believe a separate body will be set up to run it.

"We'd certainly like to see the White Pages on the Web. Paper telephone directories still have a place, and that will continue, but there should be other forms.

"Eventually it will happen, but we don't know when."
 

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