Conduit claims it is still half price - sometimes

The announcement follows a threat of legal action from BT, which had taken exception to the advertising campaign for Conduit's 118888 enquiries service.

BT said that Ireland-based Conduit had "no grounds to claim its price is half ours".

A spokesman for Conduit accepted that its advertising would now be altered, but insisted that its claim to be half the price of BT's service was not without foundation.

The case underlines the complexity of the new deregulated enquiries market, where different price and service structures make like-for-like comparison sometimes tricky.

Apples and oranges

The dispute arises from different views on how the two services should be compared.

Conduit has always argued that it is half the price of BT's now-defunct 192 service, rather than the current offering.

But it also pointed out that BT's wide range of prices muddied the argument.

And with BT charging individual callers a 25p connection charge plus 0.5p per second, a typical 40-second call at Conduit's 20p-per-minute rate is less than half the price.

For its part, BT points out that its efficient service means callers spend less time on the line, leading to generally lower bills.

It argues that its superior speed and accuracy make direct price comparisons unfair and misleading.

The dispute goes on

This may not be the end of the case.

Conduit insisted that its "half-price" advertising campaign was about to be replaced anyway.