BT's numbers come up for £15m T-Mobile deal

Fends off US rival The Number for directory enquiries contract…

BT has won a contract worth £15m to supply T-Mobile's 12 million users with directory enquiries services. The mobile phone provider has chosen BT as its preferred enquiries provider, using the BT number 118 500, created after Oftel put an end to the old 192 system to encourage competition earlier this year. BT, which already handles around 450 million directory enquiries calls a year, beat rival US operator The Number to win the two-year contract to supply the Deutsche Telekom subsidiary. In addition to the traditional directory enquiries, the new service will mean that T-Mobile's customers can have the number they were searching for texted to their phone for free, as well as accessing cinema listings, TV guides and business classifieds.