The row began on Friday when BT ran a press ad under the guise of a 'Public notice'. The execution, by St Luke's, states: 'BT Directory Enquiries is being updated. The old 192 number is being replaced. The new number is 118 500'.
A day later, The Number began a national press campaign through WCRS, mimicking BT's copy and typeface, but with the lines: 'The new number is 118 118' and 'Not BT (thank goodness)'. BT served an injunction on The Number for infringment of copyright.
Simon Lubin, BT Directories' marketing director said: "Its level of plagiarism isn't a very good move. It's a recipe for anarchy."
The Number's chief executive, Chris Moss, responded: "We attempted to put the record straight. Since then BT has tried to gag us from making it clear consumers have a choice [of directory enquiries services]."
Meanwhile, Oftel lodged an official complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority about BT's ad. The telecoms regulator is anxious BT is misleading consumers into thinking it controls directory enquiries. The market has been deregulated, with a host of firms jostling for a slice of the £350m revenues available.
"Oftel has raised its concerns over the content and the style of this ad with the appropriate industry regulators the ASA and ICSTIS," said Oftel policy adviser Alex Campbell. "All this does is spell more confusion for consumers."
The 192 number will be phased out in August. The new services aim to offer facilities such as texting numbers to callers' mobile phones.
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