Mobile directory suffers down time

CONNECTIVITY, the UK mobile directory business, has seen its 118 800 out of service all weekend.

A company announcement of Friday cited technical issues that forced 118 800 to take down both its web site and its mobile call centre. However, its landline service remained available.

118 800 launched less than a month ago, allowing users to request a name and mobile number of any given person for £1.

A spokesman for the company said, "The high number of queries 118 800 has received since launching have highlighted some technical glitches in the system. To ensure 118 800 provides faultless customer service the decision has been made to temporarily suspend the service allowing for technical work to be completed."

If a requested individual’s mobile number is in the directory, they receive a text with the number of the person trying to contact them, asking them to complete the call.

Subsequent to the downtime, Connectivity denied reports that it had been forced to suspend service due to a deluge of public requests to remove information from its database. A company representative said the company was contacting publications who made the claim to demand corrections.

Instead, Connectivity claimed that it had suffered technical problems caused by a rushed launch and that they had lost two weeks of testing because of pre-launch press reports. True or not, this is an approach that is hardly likely to win the business many friends in the often intrusive and highly critical British media.

The launch of 118800 in June caused widespread privacy concerns - Connectivity had purchased lists of about 15 million names and mobile numbers from marketing companies. Although it did not give out numbers to users, many felt the directory represented an unacceptable intrusion. A viral email campaign encouraged people to apply to have their information removed.

A message on the 118800 website reads: "The 118 800 service for mobile phone connections is currently unavailable - from this website and by phone - whilst we undertake major developments to our 'Beta Service' to improve the experience for our customers. We'll be back as soon as possible with the new improved service.

"All ex-directory requests made by people in our directory to date are being processed. There will be no need to resend these requests. And we will take further ex-directory requests when the service resumes. We will not be taking ex-directory requests by phone or text whilst the service is not operational."

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