UK Phone CD
Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake
There was an interesting news story on Radio 4 in the UK today. A German
company called Topware is planning to release a CD-ROM of a UK phone
number database in the near future for the price of 19.95 pounds. Not
only will this be possibly available to anyone in the UK but to people
in other countries as well. The weasel words in the previous sentence
are due to the unknown reaction from BT, see below.
As well as letting the user enter a name and generate a list of
addresses and phone numbers, the software apparently will also allow you
to enter a street name or phone number and will generate a list of names
or a name. The civil liberties lobby are already complaining that the
latter facility is inappropriate - the manufacturers argue that they use
it for other countries and no one seems to mind.
There may well be a legal challenge from British Telecom claiming that
this product infringes their intellectual property. Apparently the same
thing happened in Germany and Deutsche Telekom (or whatever their name
is) lost. BT currently have a monopoly on their UK phonedisc for which
they charge 199.95 pounds per annum.
If anyone spots a commercial outlet for this product, it would be a
great service to this news group to inform us of it.
--
Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake
(who has no commercial involvement with the product other than as a potentially
satisfied user if he can get his hands on a copy legally :)
Ian Mitchell Lambert
In article <DKMliDAO...@tdrake.demon.co.uk>, Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake
<bar...@tdrake.demon.co.uk> writes
>There was an interesting news story on Radio 4 in the UK today. A German
>company called Topware is planning to release a CD-ROM of a UK phone
>number database in the near future for the price of 19.95 pounds. Not
>only will this be possibly available to anyone in the UK but to people
>in other countries as well. The weasel words in the previous sentence
>are due to the unknown reaction from BT, see below.
>
>As well as letting the user enter a name and generate a list of
>addresses and phone numbers, the software apparently will also allow you
>to enter a street name or phone number and will generate a list of names
>or a name. The civil liberties lobby are already complaining that the
>latter facility is inappropriate - the manufacturers argue that they use
>it for other countries and no one seems to mind.
>
>There may well be a legal challenge from British Telecom claiming that
>this product infringes their intellectual property. Apparently the same
>thing happened in Germany and Deutsche Telekom (or whatever their name
>is) lost. BT currently have a monopoly on their UK phonedisc for which
>they charge 199.95 pounds per annum.
>
>If anyone spots a commercial outlet for this product, it would be a
>great service to this news group to inform us of it.
It was also reported in the Independent newspaper in the UK yesterday.
I've tried various search engines and cannot find ant reference.
The Independent reports it as coming from a German source, and that BT
is trying to ban its sale. I thought the price in the article was $29 rather
than £29.
May I join the list of those interested, please?
--
Ian Mitchell Lambert
iw...@ukc.ac.uk
Turnpike evaluation. For Turnpike information, mailto:in...@turnpike.com
Daniel Vulkan
In article <DKMliDAO...@tdrake.demon.co.uk>, Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake
<bar...@tdrake.demon.co.uk> writes
>There was an interesting news story on Radio 4 in the UK today. A German
>company called Topware is planning to release a CD-ROM of a UK phone
>number database in the near future for the price of 19.95 pounds.
<snip>
>
>There may well be a legal challenge from British Telecom claiming that
>this product infringes their intellectual property. Apparently the same
>thing happened in Germany and Deutsche Telekom (or whatever their name
>is) lost. BT currently have a monopoly on their UK phonedisc for which
>they charge 199.95 pounds per annum.
>
<snip>
This was also reported in yesterday's Guardian. The company is
apparently called Topware CD Service, and they are based in Mannheim,
Germany. The CD is called the UK-Info disk, and was unveiled at the
European Computer Trade Show held this week at Olympia in London. A
"representative" of the company, quoted in the article, is named as
Alistair Crawford. He claimed that a German version had sold 2.5 million
copies.
Oftel (the UK telecommunications regulator) is also upset, saying the
product undermines industry guidelines; and the office of the Data
Protection Registrar is also looking into it.
--
Daniel Vulkan
Watford, England Tel: +44 1923 817 293
dan...@vulkan.demon.co.uk
David O'Farrell
could someone explain what is currently available with the
UK phone CD (supplied by BT).Can a search be made by surname
only ?
--
\|/
(o o)
===================oOO==(_)==OOo===================
David O'Farrell
Ericsson Systems Expertise Ltd.
Beech Hill,Clonskeagh,
Dublin 4.
Ireland.
e-mail eei...@eei.ericsson.se
MEMO EEIDOFL ( or eei.e...@memo.ericsson.se)
phone 353-1-2072703 ( ECN 830 2703) work
353-1-8336932 home
fax 353-1-2693153
room number 1.12
===================================================
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Heuristics are bug ridden by definition. If they didn't have bugs,
then they'd be algorithms.
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John E Wynn
In article <3237C5...@eei.ericsson.se>, David O'Farrell
>could someone explain what is currently available with the
>UK phone CD (supplied by BT).Can a search be made by surname
>only ?
A search can *only* be made by surname or at least the first 3 chars of a
surname. For example searching on TOM. (note the full stop) will only find
matches to the surname TOM, whereas searching on TOM (without the full
stop) will find all matches to TOM, TOMAS, TOMALIN etc.
Searches can then be refined in a variety of ways (usually necessary as
there is a display limit of 200 records). For an unusual name of less
than 200 listings just enter the name and you'll get a full UK list.
BT originally intended the CD to be used as an alternative to ringing dir
enquiries (which they charge for) and deliberately omitted any print
routines to stop others from selling *their data* :) So you can't easily
get a print-out but it can be done :)
Some ways of refining the search include:
By initials
By post town
By county
By any area designated and set-up by the user.
By post code (or part thereof)
By street name (or part thereof)
By House name
By House number
By any string of chars entered in a "wild-card" field. i.e. the search
will find the matching string in any of the address elements.
Most entries are surname/initials only so for many name combinations there
will be scores, if not hundreds, of possible matches. The strength of
the BT CD product is that it contains full postal addresses, unlike the
paper versions which in many cases now only show a street address and
district.
If anyone is planning a bulk import of the rival product (to make a quick
quid or two) please let us know - the notes are burning my fingers :)
John Wynn
John Musselle
Alasdair Mackie
Barney Tyrwhitt-Drake <bar...@tdrake.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>There was an interesting news story on Radio 4 in the UK today. A German
>company called Topware is planning to release a CD-ROM of a UK phone
>number database in the near future for the price of 19.95 pounds.
<snip>
Seen in yesterday's Daily Telegraph an advert for the above. Details
are as follow:
Tel 0049 621 48286700
Fax 0049621 48286710
http://www.topware.com (mostly in German but with English link to
approrpriate pages)
Compuserve: GO TOPFORUM
I had a look at the web page, and the CD can be ordered through it -
but it isn't Netscape secure, so probably best to phone an order.
Alasdair Mackie
PS I have no link to this company and accept no responsibility for
it's products!!!!
Dave Massie
>>If anyone spots a commercial outlet for this product, it would be a
>>great service to this news group to inform us of it.
This was advertised for sale in the Times yesterday. You obviously
read the wrong papers :-)
Details:
15.7 million numbers, incl addresses
Export facilities
fuzzy searching
Interfaces for DOS, Windows
cost 19.95
The company is 'Topware', obviously not UK, judging by the 'phone
numbers:
phone 0049 621 48286700
Fax 0049 621 48286710
Internet: http://www.topware.com
Dave
Christine Bendall
In Article<323a7622...@newnews.pncl.co.uk>, <alas...@pncl.co.uk> writes:
> Seen in yesterday's Daily Telegraph an advert for the above. Details
> are as follow:
>
> Tel 0049 621 48286700
> Fax 0049621 48286710
We already have the D-Info CD from Top-Ware, which is pretty good.
I phoned Top-Ware just now - to order the UK CD - and found that
the young lady on the german phone number above spoke super English
- automatically. This number is obviously intended for English
speaking callers!
I asked the obvious - what about Mercury and Cable numbers - and
she said it was "just the phone book" so - as the german one is
reputed to have been typed-in in China - I guess the same might be true
about the UK one!
I was offered Master-Card or Visa as payment possibilities and told
to expect delivery in about one week
I would think that FAX would be a very good way of ordering by credit
card, especially from outside Europe. We order a lot by FAX from UK and
USA suppliers and it is a good way because you have a copy and a log entry
to prove you sent it!
Peter
using Christine's account