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With just ten days to go before the old 192 number is switched over to 118 take-your-pick-of-operators, BT has issued the results of its continuous Customer Opinion Survey that finds 70 % of the public still believe 192 is the correct number to call for directory assistance. The fact that Oftel has a different set of research results, proving 80% are aware of the change should, for once, be taken with a healthy pinch of scepticism.

Directory enquiries was never going to be a market to set the nation a-quiver with excitement, but the fact that so much has been spent to make an impression on so few should be a warning to marketers everywhere.

With just ten days to go before the old 192 number is switched over to 118 take-your-pick-of-operators, BT has issued the results of its continuous Customer Opinion Survey that finds 70 % of the public still believe 192 is the correct number to call for directory assistance.

The fact that Oftel has a different set of research results, proving 80% are aware of the change should, for once, be taken with a healthy pinch of scepticism. Oftel will have a lot of face-saving to do should the switchover go badly wrong. BT, however,is one of the operators responsible for the less-than-memorable advertising;conversely,its figures must carry a fair degree of credibility.

This national outbreak of disinterest is not for want of marketing effort or expenditure. It comes in spite of a heavyweight campaign by The Number, through WCRS, that has seen the ubiquitous, eponymous and, frankly, unsanitary-looking joggers '118' and '118' huffing and puffing out of every available television screen, radio or poster site.

While 118 118 has been left to do most of the running as the market has opened up, there has also been a high-profile presence from BT and its 118 500 service.The climax of all this was to see the two take chunks out of each other over the so-called 'Public notice' press ad, in which BT claimed the new number was 118 500;The Number countered with a copycat ad, but a different number; and BT was moved to call in the CID to investigate the leaking of its media schedule.

All this excitement, and nary a blip on the public's awareness radar. Why? Because,for the most part, they couldn't care less. When the rack of 118 numbers launched in December of last year, Oftel said: "For the first time consumers will have an easy choice of directory enquiries services at a range of different prices."

This mantra of proliferation of choice and its perceived benefits has now become so loud that the consumers' voice is being drowned out.To break up a monopoly - in this case BT's-is undoubtedly a good thing,but where is the customer insight that says that more choice in more markets is what they want?

From August 24, the public will have to make a choice between the various services, as they find a call to 192 provides nothing more than a list of 12 alternative numbers.The proof of the system's desirability will be just how long it takes for that list of operators to rationalise to two or three.