> why on earth did you ever assume you got free calls? oh, well: I was able to call and talk for more then one hour every time, from my town in Italy to my fr

> why on earth did you ever assume you got free calls? oh, well: I was able to call and talk for more then one hour every time, from my town in Italy to my friend in the US :) :) and.... for years ;) In Italy the 111 never existed as a service at that time (and I think it does not exist even now), but other similar numbers (112, 113, 115, 118, 117) where all free and were emergency call service (as I wrote above). Btw if I recall correctly the "directory information" number was "12", and was not free (even from public phones, and even when phone book disappeared from public phones, making all of us pretty angry!). To recap I think Docber, above (talking about Australia), got it right: the 111 was something not in service, but call to it was free.