The charges associated with the directory enquiry serves operating in the State have been criticised for a “chronic lack of transparency” by a leading consumer advocate.
People who call such services from a landline and then opt to be connected at an operator's prompt can be hit with charges of over €1 a minute for local calls while people using the services from a mobile phone can face even higher fees.
The chief executive of the Consumer Association of Ireland Dermott Jewell described the charges as "absolutely appalling" and said the operators failed completely to tell callers of the scale of the costs before they were connected.
There are four providers in the State,, The most expensive directory enquiries numbers to call are 11811 and 11850 . The latter has an initial 99 cent set-up charge per call if it is made from a landline after which there is a.69c per minute fee. The calls are charged on a per second basis.
The eircom-owned 11811 charges 98.99 per cent for connection plus 1.15 per second after that – this works out at 69 cent per minute.
Calls from 11890 cost €1.46 for the first minute and 40 cent for each minute thereafter while 11827 has a cost of €1.03 for the first minute and 22 cent per minute thereafter.
"It has come across our radar on many occasions," Mr Jewell said yesterday. "We have gone to the companies on many occasions and pleaded with them to properly alert callers to the exorbitant charges but they do not listen to us," he said.
Calling from a mobile makes even less sense. The fees vary depending on the operator. If an O2 customer calls 11811 and opts to be connected to a number they pay €1.17 for the connection and the same amount for each minute thereafter. When calling the other three operators, the cost is 99 cent per minute. A spokeswoman for the company said that such charges were industry standards and comparable with the charges imposed by other networks.
An industry source said that the numbers of people calling enquiry services from their mobiles and then opting for connection was negligible. "Most people are using the web or other sources to find numbers. It really is a dying business and the revenues generated from it by the mobile companies is very small."
