Telefónica has announced that it intends to start charging clients for its identification of callers service which, until now, has been free of charge. From the 1st October the Spanish telecommunications company will start charging 0.50 euros plus IVA (0.58 euros) per month for this service.

In July this year Telefónica started charging clients who don’t pay for broadband connection but the company has now taken the decision to charge all of its clients regardless of whether they pay for broadband, DUO or TRIO.

According to Telefónica 6 million of its clients use the caller identification service and out of these 4 million did not have to pay until now. Telefónica has tried to play down its decision to start charging its clients for a service which was up to now provided free of charge saying that the service used technical resources. The move will mean that Telefónica will now increase its takings by 24 million euros a year (not including the extra 12 million euros earned from clients charged as from July 1st).

The caller identification service was first introduced in 2001 with the launch of telephones with screens which showed the number of the person calling and was offered free of charge to all of its clients with this type of telephone.

Facua, a consumer association, claims that the new charge is illegal given that users did not ask for this service in the first place. Clients of Telefónica who do not wish to continue using this service can call 1004 to cancel it.