10 Reasons not to fear the mobile directory

Who knows, 118800 could even be useful. This morning saw the announcement of a brand newmobile phone directory, available online and via your phone.The mobile directory's arrival has been heralded by the usual bleating of piracy campaigners whobelieve that 118800 is some kind of open invitation for telemarketers, call centres and paedophilesto gain unfettered access to our most intimate of gadgets.Well, we think that maybe, just maybe, 118800 is good idea and we shouldn't fear it. It might evencome in bloody handy one day. Here's 10 reasons why:

1. It's expensive

Sure, a quid doesn't seem like a huge outlay for an important phone number, but if you think coldcallers are going to invest in thousands of these on the off chance they can find someone old andgullible enough for their latest must-have timeshare offers, you're wrong.

2. It texts you first

118800 doesn't hand out mobile phone details willy-nilly. In fact, on the off chance you can actuallyfind the right person on it (more on that shortly), it will send them a text message first, asking themto confirm that they want to hand over their details to some shady stalker person.

3. It only finds one person at a time

Another loss for the telemarketers and market researchers, 118800 only finds one person at a time.That makes for a pretty laborious task for any company wanting to aggressively market their garbageusing the online directory.

4. You can go ex-directory

Of course, you don't need to be in it at all. Text the letter 'E' to 118800 and they'll erase it from theirlist. The only annoyance is that this will cost you the price of a text, so instead you can call them forfree on 0800 138 6263.