Directory assistance

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In telecommunications, directory assistance is a telephone call one can make to find out a specific wireline phone number and / or address of a residence or business. More than 150,000,000 wireline telephone number listings are available in the U.S. and Canada.

This does not include the roughly 100,000,000 wireline telephone numbers which are unlisted.

Listings for the 200,000,000 plus wireless / cell telephone numbers are also unlisted and hence not available via Directory Assistance.

In addition there is EDA or Enhanced Directory Assistance services available providing Movie Listings, Weather Reports, Sports Scores, Lottery Results, Traffic Reports, Directions, Web and Email addresses, Personal Shopping Tips, etc.

Directory Assistance is also referred to as DA and 411 and Information

Calls into Directory Assistance Call Centers can come from wireline telephones, wireless (cellular) telephones, VOIP (Internet) telephones, Satellite telephones.

Directory Assistance Call Centers use a variety of systems including: Live Operator Systems, Automated Voice Recognition Systems at Virtual Call Centers, SMS Text Messaging Systems, etc.

The highest quality Directory Assistance Service comes from DA Centers using U.S. based and well trained Live Operators with Telco-Fresh / Daily Updated telephone listing databases.

This provides the best combination of fast and accurate DA Services with calls lasting under 30 seconds and listings provided accurately over 95% of the time.

Lower quality and cheaper DA Centers use Automated Voice Recognition Systems which are hard to use along with cheaper Telco-State / Yearly Updated listing databases.

Many of these cheaper advertiser supported DA Systems are free but the caller has to listen to a minute or more of audio ads and suffer with accuracy rates of under 40%.

Most DA Operators can also give the caller an address as well as a telephone number.

The person or location typically must be listed in the printed telephone book, although in some areas it is possible to be listed in the directory assistance database, but not in the printed book.

A number which is neither available by directory assistance nor printed in the telephone book is called unlisted, and a number which is available by directory assistance but not printed in the telephone book is called non-published or unpublished.

Telephone companies in the U.S. make a profit by charging customers a fee to make a phone number be unlisted or nonpublished in Directories. Many think that the FCC and Congress should ban this practice or put those excessive fees in a special fund (LifeLine Fund) for poorer families who cannot pay $50 to $100 per month for wireline telephone Service.

In the U.S., residential and business listings that are searched by name (and usually locality - City & State or Zipcode) are called "white page listings", and business listings organized by category (i.e. Florists) are "yellow page listings". Federal, State, Local Governmental listings are called "blue page listings".

Directory assistance cannot provide unlisted numbers or cellular telephone numbers or VOIP Telephone Numbers such as SkypeIN.

1 Technology
2 United States
3 U.S. Wireline Telephone Companies Classify DA into 4 rate classes
4 Toll-free Directory Assistance
5 United Kingdom
6 External links

[edit] Technology

Directory assistance systems incorporate a wide range of automation to reduce the cost of human operators. Almost all systems use custom database software to locate listings quickly.

Most directory assistance systems use automated readback systems to give out the phone number. This frees the DA operator to move on to another caller as soon as the correct listing is located.

Some systems have "store and forward" technology which records "City and State" the caller is requesting and then plays the City & State speech to the operator before they come online and then say Residential or Business Listing? or simply "What Listing Please?"

Interactive voice response systems have been added to many directory assistance systems. These complex systems use speech recognition and recorded speech or speech synthesis to handle the entire call without Live Operator intervention.

Most systems recognize location and listing. If recognition confidence is high, the best result is played to the caller. If confidence is low, the caller's request is played back to a Live Operator, who locates the correct listing.

[edit] United States

Related terms: 4-1-1

In the North American Numbering Plan (covering Canada and the United States), directory assistance may be contacted by dialing 4-1-1 (one of the N11 codes) or to get a listing in a remote or non-local area code, directory assistance is available at 1-area code-555-1212.

However, a 411 landline call will provide local listings as well as nationwide listings and sometimes international listings.

Most telephone companies permit up to two listings per 411 call. All wireless carriers offer nationwide listings with 411, and some offer additional Enhanced Directory Assistance services.

[edit] U.S. Wireline Telephone Companies Classify DA into 4 rate classes

1. 411 LDA - Local Directory Assistance. This is where you dial 411 and request the Operator to search for a listing in a group of area codes "LATA" local to you. Example: you live in area code 630 (Oak Brook, IL) and request a listing for a business in area code 312 (Chicago, IL). In this case AT&T Illinois bills the call at $1.25 plus taxes.

2. 411 NDA - National Directory Assistance. This is where you dial 411 and request the Operator to search for a listing in a an area code not local to you. Example: you live in area code 630 (Oak Brook, IL) and request a listing for a business in area code 213 (Los Angelas, CA). In this case AT&T Illinois bills the call at $1.99 plus taxes.

3. 411 (AC)-555-1212 - National Directory Assistance. This example assumes you are in Oak Brook, IL (AC 630) and you have MCI as your Long Distance Carrier. Example: you are looking for a listing in Los Angelas, CA (AC 213) and dial 213-555-1212. In this case MCI bills the call at $3.49 plus taxes.

4. AT&T International Directory Assistance calls are $7.95 plus taxes. Dial 00 and ask for the International Directory Assistance Operator. See http://www.consumer.att.com/global/english/country_codes.html for additional information along with Country Codes / City Codes.

[edit] Toll-free Directory Assistance

In the U.S., directory assistance for companies with toll-free "800 numbers" (with area codes 800, 888, 877 and 866) is available from toll-free directory assistance, 800-555-1212.

Toll-free directory assistance is provided by AT&T as mandated by the Federal Communications Commission. Companies must request to have their toll-free number listed and pay AT&T each time their phone number is released to a Toll-free directory assistance caller.

[edit] United Kingdom

In the UK, Directory Assistance is called Directory Enquiries. In the UK, directory enquiries used to be reached by dialling 192 (domestic numbers) or 153 (foreign), with the service supplied by the former monopolist, British Telecom. These numbers were switched off on 24 August 2003 following the introduction of competition to directory enquiries. There are currently over 200 providers, reached by dialling 118 plus another three digit number. Three providers, 118 500 (BT), 118 888 and 118 118, have over 90% of the market, mostly due to very heavy advertising. The British Government's initial plan of ending the BT monopoly of directory enquiries, thus making the service more competitive, has backfired.^{[citation needed]}