The 12 hangs up again, the 118 reapply

By Catherine MAUSSION           Saturday February 05, 2005

Finished the 12, the number of the information. The date of its burial is even fixed: it will be on April 3, 2006. To give time to the French who called it 16 million times, last year, to disaccustom itself some. The service will continue nevertheless to be assured. There could even be abundance of services of telephoned information. If the 12 disappears after more than sixty years of existence (it was born on May 2, 1939), it is because... of its notoriety.

In a market of the information open to competition, the 12, memorized by everyone, made shade with small new, prevented from being made a true place on the market. It is sasine by one of them Council of State which is worth the revocation of the 12 today. The Authority of regulation of the télécoms (ART) published Friday the new methods.

Drawing of lots. The consumer undoubtedly gains complexity there. Instead of a quickly composed number, it will have to type a sequence of six digits. It will start inevitably with 118 ­ it is the format imposed by the European Union for the service. The three following figures are free, except for the first hundred. Nobody will be able to assume for example the 118 118. The regulator expects an avalanche of candidatures. It thus provided that the numbers ­ some more snuffed than of others ­ would be selected after drawing of lots...

At will the tariff level, the subscriber gain there? Tomorrow, they will be free. Today, France Telecom occupies a place archidominante with its 12: "Around 60 % of the market of the information" , according to ART. And its tariff, 80 centimes of euro the phone call, is not inevitably cheap. It even will pass as of March 3 to 90 centimes. The rise claimed by the operator has been just accepted by the regulator: in spite of the expensive tariff, France Telecom would currently lose "a few million euros" on the 12, according to the estimate of ART.

With UFC-That to choose, one disputes the high price of the call to the 12: the service of information belongs to the universal service (KNOWN), beside the access to the network, of the access to the cabins and the directories. And France Telecom has been just indicated as operator charged with KNOWN. It is thus supposed to offer its basic services to accessible prices.

The English example. However, for Julien Dourgnon, UFC-That to choose, "90 centimes the call to the 12, is this well" accessible?"" And to quote the example of the United Kingdom. There, the operators hustle themselves to make information. "The Number, Opal Telecom, Cable and Wireless, Led, and even one 118 Gay..." enumerates Julien Dourgnon, "and for a basic call the invoice is 30 pence (around 36 centimes of euro) ".

At France Telecom, one proposes the quality of the service to justify his price, with a given information, three times out of four, in less than 15 seconds, and a price just above the European average (74 centimes net of tax). The subscriber will judge on parts when the new operators open their own services. Beginning of the brawl enters first 118: November 2, 2005.