God bless 'em, Jingle Networks (800-Free-411) is supposed to be profitable but neither it nor the "free DA" providers have broken out of obscurity. Several years ago I had thought that free DA would be widely used by mobile consumers, especially feature phone owners, as an alternative to search in some cases and that there was a strong ad opportunity accordingly.

While the ads convert well, the call volumes haven't continued to grow and the overwhelming majority of mobile users don't call DA at all, let alone the free services. Among the free services Jingle's 800-Free-411 is the best known. But it remains somewhat mysterious as to why more consumers aren't using them. The quick answer is lack of promotion. Answering the question of why depends on whose service you're discussing: carriers, independents, search engines. 

Now in a bid to gain some new attention and usage (and ad inventory accordingly) Jingle is offering free long distance and international calls:

Callers from the continental United States can place a five minute call through 1-800-FREE411 to reach out and connect with loved ones no matter how far away they may be. To place a free long distance call, callers dial 1-800-FREE411 and listen to the main menu prompts where they can select "free call."

After entering the phone number that they wish to call, including a country code, they will be connected free of charge for five minutes. Callers have to listen to two short advertisements and there is no limit on the number of calls they can make in a day. Mobile phone callers may still be charged for minutes by their service provider. 

This move will generate some usage but it won't solve the free DA segment's main problem: lack of consumer awareness.

In our most recent research (n=707, 4/09) 79% of survey respondents said they simply did not call DA/411 from their mobile phones. Among the 20% that did, 46% of that group called it once a month or more frequently. But 86% of those who did call DA on their mobile phones only called it "a few times a year." There are some claims of higher usage rates in the market, but in several surveys over the past two years we have consistently seen ignorance or lack of consumer awareness regarding the free DA services.

Google is using Goog 411 primarily to train Voice Search; the carriers don't want to cannibalize their cash cow 411 businesses and Jingle doesn't have the money to run TV ads and so relies on PR and promotions like the one above. But without awareness advertising this segment will limp along or disappear as more people turn to search and app-based alternatives on their mobile devices.