Telepocalypse

Competition works

A few years ago the directory enquiries business in the UK was opened up. The old 192 number (equivalent of 411 for US readers) was decomissioned. In its place the "118 xxx" number range was created. At first there was a flurry of price-based competition. But I saw this in Waterloo station in London earlier this week:

So it seems that competition is now shifting from price to features. Having a directory service offer a wider range of information is nothing new, of course, but it's illuminating to see the process unfold.