General information
How often is the site updated?
Are mobile/fax numbers listed on The Phone Book online?
How can I change my details in The Phone Book online/on your database?
Why can’t I find an address from a telephone number?
Filling in the Search fields
Why do I have to specify a town or Post Code, I’d like to do a National Search?
Why when I am searching “Business name” am I asked which of two towns I want when it should be obvious? (eg. Newport, Gwent or Newport Isle of Wight)
When I search a particular town area, entries from other areas I have not requested are presented. Why?
Why can’t I search for numbers in Eire?
Avoiding mistakes
Name
Initials
Location
Town
Street
Postcode
Results
What does ‘Text number’ do?
How do I see a map?
Why can’t I find the number when I’m sure the name and address are correct?
The code of the number I was searching for is nothing like the one I seem to remember. Why?
Why can I get a number when I dial 118500 but can not find it on The Phone Book online?
Other Phone Book Products
What alternative Number Information services are available?
Using the service on WAP
What is 118500?
Learn more about
Using Search History
The Phone Book online contains number information for both People and Businesses, including organisations such as government bodies and charities. It is a telephone number information service not a postal address service and we only display the details of customers (businesses and private individuals) whose numbers appear in BT's printed Phone Books.
For general enquiries about the website, contact us online or ring 0845 845 0192
How often is the site updated?
Changes are made to our database daily. These changes will be visible on The Phone Book online once all data has been processed through the relevant systems - this is normally by the following working day.
Are Mobile/Fax numbers listed on The Phone Book online?
Mobile and Fax numbers are listed at the customer's request. The Phone Book online uses data from a core database to which all licensed Telecommunications Operators and Service Providers submit their customer's directory data. If you would like to have your mobile or Fax number added to your own entry please contact your service provider. If your service Provider is BT please contact us.
How can I change my details in The Phone Book online/on your database?
The data that we use is supplied from a core database (OSIS) to which all licensed Telecommunications Operators and Service Providers submit their customers' directory data.
If your service provider is BT and you wish to change your entry please call us on:
0800 800 150 to change your residential entry,
0800 800 152 to change your business entry.
If you have a service provider other than BT you will need to contact your own service provider as BT is not able to make changes to this central database on behalf of other telephone service providers.
Once you have asked your own service provider to make the necessary amendments the correct data will be added to the OSIS database for cascade to all directory service providers including BT.
Why can't I find an address from a telephone number?
BT does not provide any product that is capable of performing a reverse search facility. This would contravene the Data Protection Act
You can use either capitals or lower case letters to enter the necessary information.
- To find a number for a business when you don’t know the name, select the ‘Business name’ search link. Enter the name and the location e.g. town or Post Code (not both) and click on ‘search’. If the business name is very common (eg. Lloyds), you can select ‘Advanced Search’ to narrow down the search by also providing the street name that the business is located on.
- If you are uncertain of details or the exact spelling when looking for a business by name, try using a wildcard (enter an '*' after the first 4 letters in any field) to match any unknown characters e.g. enter West* in the name field for 'Westminster' or 'Green*' in the street field for a street called 'Greenleaf' or 'Greendale'
- The search will always try and match to the type of business you have entered in the ‘Business type’ field eg. if you type in ‘Hotel’ in the ‘Business type’ field, we will match to the classification of ‘Hotels and Inns’ and give you results for the area you’ve specified in the ‘Location’ field.
- If you are unable to find the business you are looking for, we suggest you:
a) Check all spellings
b) Try leaving out or shortening some of the words and appending a wildcard '*'
c) Consider whether the party you are looking for is listed under a different name or likely to be ex-directory. (Where a number is ex-directory, we are unable to confirm that this is the case online, though we may be able to confirm this through our voice Directory Enquiry service on 118 500 – see also below).
Why do I have to specify a town or Post Code, I’d like to do a National Search?
When you are searching for a business and you don’t know the exact location for that business, you can carry out a UK wide search. Simply enter “UK” in the ‘Location’ field or leave this field blank and we will return results, where possible, from across the whole of the UK.
Please note that we will only return up to 200 results for any search, so for common business names a UK wide search is unlikely to return any listings.
Why when I am searching ‘Business name’ am I asked which of two towns I want when it should be obvious? (eg. Newport, Gwent or Newport, Isle of Wight).
Where there is more than one town sharing the same name, it cannot be assumed that a customer wants a particular one just because it is more widely known than another, so we ask that you confirm the locality you want to search within.
When I search a particular town area, entries from other areas I have not requested are presented. Why?
There are several reasons why this may occur. The Phone Book online uses data from a database (OSIS) to which all licensed Telecommunications Operators and Service Providers submit their customers' directory data. Different telecommunications companies have different boundaries for allocation of their customer number ranges. For this reason listings are sometimes retrieved from a town or area outside that of the original search. Also some customers specifically request that their numbers can be retrieved from searches in other towns. Finally, numbers that are not based on a specific geographic location such as 0800 or 0870 numbers may also be retrieved, as they do not fall under a dedicated town area.
To carry out a search over a smaller specific area, try inputting just the first part of a Post Code (eg. DE21) in the location field instead of a locality name.
Why can't I search for numbers in Eire?
BTs directory products and services use data from a core data base (OSIS) to which all licensed Telecommunications Operators and Service Providers submit their customer’s directory data. This core database only contains the directory information of UK, Isle of Man & Channel Islands telephone service customers. Data for Eire is owned by independent telecommunications companies. BT currently has permission to provide these listings through our voice 118 500 service only.
If you are looking for a business you must enter the name of the business, including any initials in the ‘Business name’ field.
If you are unsure of the business name then just enter the words you know. The order in which they appear is not important. For long business names containing several words, it is often better to just enter one or two words rather than the full name.
You can use the wildcard character (put an * after at least four characters) if you are unsure about a particular spelling.
Double-barrelled names can be found by entering either part of the name, or more precisely by entering both parts with either a hyphen or a space between each.
If a business name contains initials, then these are considered to be part of the name and can be entered into the ‘Business name’ field.
The location (town or Post Code) of the business you are looking for should be entered in the ‘Location’ field. You can enter either the name of the town, the first section (eg. DE21) or the full (eg. DE21 6BA) Post Code in the location box. It is important that you do not enter both a locality name and the Post Code.
If you do not enter anything in the ‘Location’ field, we will assume that you want to carry out a search across the whole of the UK and we will return results accordingly where we can (see also “Why do I have to specify a town or Post Code, I’d like to do a National Search?”).
You can enter both the town and the street names within Advanced Search, using the street field to narrow your search within that town.
If you are unsure of the spelling for the town we suggest that you enter a wildcard (enter 4 letters followed by an *).
Searching on London can be a problem due to its size. If at first you receive too many matches you could try to narrow down the search to a specific part of London by using the first section of the Post Code e.g. WC1A or SW19 instead of entering London in the town field, or by completing the street field within the ‘Advanced Search’ option.
The street name can be input to help find a business by going to the ‘Advanced Search’ option within the ‘Business name’ page.
There is no minimum number of characters required for either building or street so you can enter as much or as little as you like.
You can enter either the full street name including the suffix (‘Street’, ‘St’, ‘Road’, ‘Rd’ etc), just the name of the street (eg. ‘High’) or part of the street name followed by a wildcard (“*”) (eg. ‘Lond*’ instead of ‘London Road’).
We recommend searching by Business name and location at first and only entering a street name if a large amount of matching information is displayed, or when we suggest that you use the ‘Advanced Search’ function.
Enter the first section of the Post Code e.g. DE21 or L2 if you want to narrow down your search and know which part of a town you want to search within. This can be particularly useful when searching within a large City and where you are looking for a common name. It is important that if you enter the Post Code within the ‘Location’ field, you do not enter a town name as well.
If you know the full Post Code, this can be entered into the location field instead, but you must enter in the correct format eg. “DE21 6BA” and NOT “DE216BA”. No other variations on Post Code entry other than the first section of the Post Code or the complete, correctly formatted Post Code will be accepted.
Very occasionally the address of the business you are looking for will fall just outside the post code area of a particular large town even when it is very close to that town. For instance Headley has a Post Code starting with KT even though it is very near Guildford (which has a post code starting GU). Where this is the case the system will not be able to match your query and give you the number you are searching for.
Once you have clicked on the ‘Text number’ link you can enter your mobile number and send the business number you need to yourself as a text message. You can text up to five numbers to a single mobile number each day.
Click on the ‘Map’ link under the result. You can ‘zoom in’ or ‘zoom out’ to see more or less detail on the location of the business you have found.
Click on the ‘Back’ link above the ‘Zoom in’ button, or the ‘Back’ button on your browser to return to the results page.
Why can't I find the number when I'm sure the name and address are correct?
The business you are looking for may be ex-directory (unlisted). In order to protect the privacy of customers who have elected to be ex-directory we will not display any of their details.
Where a number is ex-directory, we are unable to confirm that this is the case online though we may be able to confirm this through our voice Directory Enquiry service on 118 500 – see also below.
The code of the number I was searching for is nothing like the one I seem to remember. Why?
A number of geographical and other codes have been changed over the last few years including codes for mobile phone and premium rate numbers. The last major change was on 28th April 2001 but some new codes have been introduced since then. You can find out more about this by going to OFCOM's Big Number web site via www.ofcom.org.uk
Why can I get a number when I dial 118500 but can not find it on The Phone Book Online?
Some customers request that their details are available from BT's voice Directory Enquiries only. These customers also choose not to appear in printed Phone Books or online.
What alternative Number Information services are available?
We have a number of alternative Phone Book and directory Products available designed to help people find business and residential telephone numbers. These include printed Phone Books, CD-ROM's and voice Directory Enquiries. For more information click here
Using your WAP phone to look up a number on The Phone Book website could not be easier. Simply enter the URL address “wap.bt.com” into your phone. (Refer to your own phone's instructions on how to do this if you are unsure). From the main menu select "The Phone Book", and then choose what sort of search you wish to carry out - one for a business type, one for business name and one for residential name. The only fields you need to complete are the ones for the business type and location. If the business is listed in the Phone Book, you'll find their number, it's that simple.
118 500 is the voice Directory Enquiry service from BT. Features now include searches for the type of business as well the name of a business or a person and onward connection can be offered to most listed numbers. For more information and a full list of 118 500's services*, please click here
- Search History stores your most recent searches, whether for a type of business or a business or residential name, making it easier to return to searches you carried out previously.
- Search History can be cleared at any time by selecting the ‘Clear History’.
- For more information on Search History, click here.
