Watchdog hangs up because of excessive survey fees in the directory | Business

The price of telephone inquiries will be capped from April to protect consumers from excessively high costs, with some companies currently charging around £ 20 for a 90-second call.

The phone inquiries numbers – all of which start with 118 – are still used by more than one million people, many of whom are elderly, with nearly two-thirds ignoring the cost of calls.

Ofcom announced that the maximum call price would be capped at £ 3.65 every 90 seconds.

Jane Rumble, director of consumer policy for the communications regulator, said, "The prices of inquiries in the directory have increased in recent years and callers are paying much more than expected. Our evidence shows that it hurts people, some struggling to pay their bills.

"We are taking steps to protect the appellants by capping 118 prices. This will significantly reduce the cost of many calls and bring them back to 2012 levels. "

The most frequently dialed directory number is 118 118, which charges £ 11.23 for a 90-second call. According to Ofcom, while cheaper services were available, consumers tended to use the numbers they remembered.

People aged 65 and over are four times more likely to call 118 numbers than those aged 16 to 34 and much less likely to have access to the Internet as another way of finding a number. Overall, the number of calls to 118 services decreases by about 40% per year.

By capping the price of calls, Ofcom said that telephone inquiry services would be more affordable and that consumers would be protected from unexpectedly high bills. Research by the regulator has revealed that each year approximately 450,000 people pay £ 2.4m more than expected for these calls.

The telephone hotline was modified in 2003 with the intention of creating more competition in the market, which has been dominated by BT's number 192 for 47 years. The companies behind these new numbers have spent millions of pounds in marketing campaigns to try to replace 192 as one of the most memorable numbers.