±±¾©Èü³µpk10

It has also hired ex-Telegate marketing director John Gray as a project manager to work on the launch of 118247.

Talking Pages was launched as a Yellow Pages spin-off under the ownership of BT in 1987, providing numbers of Yellow Pages advertisers.

Its directory enquiries service will charge consumers 40p a minute and provide numbers and other location-based services for any business in the UK. It will be marketed as 'Yellow Pages 118247' and compete with BT, Telegate, The Number and Conduit.

Talking Pages was last promoted on TV via a dedicated campaign in 1999 featuring a voice-over by Graham Norton. The company is expected to shut down the service in the next few weeks.

Yell's directory enquiries service will be advertised in work created by its agency, Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO.

Its plans for 118247 have prompted BT to take the advertising task for its service out of AMV and hand it to fellow roster agency St Luke's.

Telegate, the German company, which uses 118866 for its service, made Gray redundant as UK marketing director at the start of the year (Marketing, January 16).

It has also emerged that the company's UK managing director, Andy Holliday, has resigned to pursue interests outside the industry.