The suggestion in the Financial Times’, that the reason British Telecom picked on the curious sum of 43.5p for directory enquiry calls is because of a cut-off point of 44p on itemised bills therefore preventing customers from discovering how much they’re spending on the service by half a pence is not entirely true; customers will not be able to find out how much the service is now costing because the cut-off point for itemised bills is 50p – dropping to 48p when the new charges are brought in: the FT ommitted to add VAT in its calculations – it also forgot that the enquiry in directory is spelled with an e.
