David Wulff wrote:

Can you explain to me the logic behind adding a 1 as the second digit in most phone codes about eight or ten years ago (I don't remember exactly when it was). If I try to dial my home number with a code of 0884 I get a recorded BT woman telling me to redial with 01884. Now as the number that follows the area code hasn't changed, what advantage has adding that extra 1 in there done? Similarly, all the 5 digit phone numbers (after the code) in Exeter were pre-fixed with a 2 to make them 6 digits about 1998. If I try to dial my old office number with the old 5 digit number I get the same recorded BT woman telling me to redial with a 2 prefix on the number... I just don't see how they have created more numbers (their reasoning at the time) by adding in what is essentially a silent number. Confused

If all UK 'geographical' area codes now begin with 01 then you have created *thousands* of unused codes from 02 to 09 that can be used for other services in the future. In the short term, all the random 0402 and 0973 area codes for mobile phones were moved to 07xxx codes. Additionally, all the freephone, lo-call, and national-rate stuff was moved to 08xx. Finally, all the Premium rate stuff was moved to 09xxx. That still left all of the 02 to 06 ranges unused. When London was in danger of running out of 0171 and 0181 seven-digit numbers the whole lot was moved to (020) and everyone's number changed from seven-digits to eight-digits. The old 0171 numbers became 7xxx xxxx. The old 0181 numbers became 8xxx xxxx. The area code for London is (020) and the whole of the 3xxx xxxx and 4xxx xxxx and 5xxx xxxx and 6xxx xxxx number ranges became available for use in the future. The 3xxx xxxx range has now started to be used in the last few years. The planning for this was all done in those BigNumber changes. Other areas of the country are using (023) and (024) and (028) and (029) area codes, and all of those have eight-digit local numbers too. When all your five-digit Exeter local numbers were prefixed with a 2 to make a six-digit local number many years ago, they opened up the range so that numbers like 3xxxxx and 4xxxxx and 5xxxxx and 6xxxxx and 7xxxxx and 8xxxxx became available for future use within your area code. By now, I expect that a lot of those *are* already in use. Most UK phone number formats are fairly simple: - (01x1) xxx xxxx - (011x) xxx xxxx - (01xxx) xxxxxx - (02x) xxxx xxxx - 07xxx xxxxxx - 08xx xxx xxxx

Colin Angus Mackay wrote:

I really couldn't care less.

More than 8 million people can dial just 3xxx xxxx or 7xxx xxxx or 8xxx xxxx to reach any London number from any other London number. That's why you write (020) xxxx xxxx, to show which part is the local number. In areas of the country where new number ranges have been opened up, people are now mis-dialling those new numbers as they are appending digits to the end of the area code that just do not exist. In Sheffield, the 2xx xxxx numbers are all used up and 3xx xxxx numbers are now being issued. The area code is (0114) for both. When faced with an (0114) 3xx xxxx number, many people are dialling 0114 2 3xx xxxx and are therefore connected to the wrong person. In Coventry, the 76xx xxxx numbers are now all used up. New numbers like 77xx xxxx are now being issued. The area code for both is (024). When faced with an (024) 77xx xxxx number many people are either changing the 77 part to 76 or are dialling 024 76 77xx xxxx which obviously connects to the wrong person. Apple knows how this works - and they're all the way over in California. Dial any UK telephone number on an I-Phone 3G S and the number will be correctly formatted on screen with all the gaps in the right places: - 01404 xxxxxx - 0141 xxx xxxx - 0114 xxx xxxx - 024 xxxx xxxx - 07xxx xxxxxx - 08xx xxx xxxx and so on.

feline_dracoform wrote:

To me, the code change looked like a 60 second job, but what about the re-testing on every system they check? Sorting out the backend effects... etc. So I don't want to assume it is an end to end simple fix.

What is the telephone number actually *used* for after you submit it along with your order? If they are happy to accept one that has the final digit missing, or an invented extra digit appended, then I think I can assume that it isn't actually used for anything at all... certainly I wouldn't expect to be getting an order confirmation callback, or a call by a delivery driver half a mile away asking for exact directions to the front door from where he is right now. It sounds like this data field could be simply eliminated. However, even in the most complex systems there's only a limited number of ways of screwing up... is the data of the correct data type to be stored, and is the storage space big enough to store the element? I can't believe that nobody would want to get in there and fix it properly.

The Grand Negus wrote:

feline_dracoform wrote: I can sort of understand why they don't want to update the website - concerns over breaking it

B.. Bu.. But it's *already* broken.

Colin Angus Mackay wrote:

The following area codes all have 7 digit numbers: 0207: London 0208: London

NO they do not! London has eight-digit numbers and the (020) code. All (02x) area codes have eight-digit numbers. The formatting rules are generally: 02x + 8 01x1 + 7 011x + 7 01xxx + 6 There are a very small number of exceptions: 01xxx + 5 01xxxx + 5 01xxxx + 4 These are very rare.

modified on Thursday, July 16, 2009 7:12 PM

The reason that Reading had to change from 0734 to 01734 was to free up the 07x range for Mobile Numbers. It sure seemed a pain that it changed again so soon after though. The same problem happened in London with their code changing from 071/081 to 0171/0181 and then to 020 very soon after. Again, the first step was a part of the plan to free up 07x for Mobile Numbers, and 08x for Special Numbers.

In 2009, you should not be using FONT tags. Mark up your content as headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, and images, and then use CSS to style them. Remove all presentation code from the HTML markup. :)