020

[BarcodeZebra]

Is the dialing code for London. Not 0207 or 0208. Jesus Christ! You LIVE there! You can't dial someone else in London using just seven digits. You HAVE to use eight. Therefore the dialing code is 020.

AAAARRFRGGGGHHH!

And breathe....

I'm confused!
our town has a six digit phone number without code, and a five digit code, starting 01 - Until now, i thought all codes were more or less like this - I'm obviously far too sheltered!
x

My mobile number falls naturally into 07 * simply because it starts 07711. However, how mobile numbers are said/written doesn't nother me one bit because they're right however you say them. Unlike 0207 XXX XXXX which is simply wrong. Like stationery and stationary - you wouldn't ague that one is just as valid as the other.

07XXX XXX XXX I forgot about the *s going bold. [sigh]

I'm a 020x criminal so it seems. It just makes it easier to remember numbers for me, and to add to it my home no starts 0208 88x xxxx, and gets confused with a van-hire number

So when someone reels of their number you can mentally discount the 0207/8 bit and erm, get on with your life. Can't say I lose a lot of sleep over this and I'm usually shit hot very pedantic about things that involve words (unless it's doing strikethough)!

Jura, the poncing about the split infinitive is a modern invention! Well, relatively - 18th-19th century or thereabouts. Don't have none of that nonsense in Middle English (nor any mathematical approaches to multiple negatives, before you swoop in on that). Lordy, it's like tennis, all this pedantry.

I'm with SoupDragon: the way mobile number are written doesn't really matter. You HAVE to dial the whole number regardless of location.

In London, if you are unfortunate enough to have to live there, in order to phone another hapless citizen you have to dial an EIGHT digit number. To imply to anyone from out of town that your number (when in town) is only SEVEN digits long simply invites confusion. On a personal basis it's rude, ignorant and discourteous. On a professional basis it's, well, unprofessional (if you can't get your phone number right what else are you going to screw up is the underlying message.)

So. There.

hana - yes! When I lived in Bristol, we had a 0117 3 number and no bugger ever believed it was real as all number were "01179" dontcha know

Oh and Coventry is 024 also.

"to add to it my home no starts 0208 88x xxxx"

No it doesn't, it starts 020 888X XXXX [snigger]

and you can't mentally discount the 0207/8 bit! you need the 7 or 8 to be able to get through, that's the whole point!

I'm a little bit confused at the entire thread...oop north it's 0191 so when telling people (even within the code range) I always say 0191 xxx xxxx

So is it just london with the eight digit thing?

how strange - you're right about it being 0191, but most of the other 01.... codes have four digits rather than three. Wonder why.

In case anyone needs any more info on this fascinating subject, you can look at the national numbering plan here. Codes at Appendix A (actually this is quite useful for trying to work out where missed calls might have originated if you don't want to phone back).

Maybe London is being elitist?

Just in case you come back to this thread DeeRiguer there's a nice little diagram explaining the change for London (and the most common idiotic misconceptions for other 011x and 02x locations) on Wikipedia.

Take a Look!

legalalien "you're right about it being 0191, but most of the other 01.... codes have four digits rather than three. Wonder why."

The larger the population, the higher the chance of there being a shorter area code.

011x xxx xxxx (ie 7 digits for the 'local' portion)
01x1 xxx xxxx (same again)
02x xxxx xxxx (even larger potential number of lines)

01xxx xxxxxx (the bulk of UK towns and villages)
01xxxx xxxxx (about a dozen places in this format)

The original metropolitan areas, London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester were given 01, 021, 031, 041, 051, 061 and then became 0171/0181, 0121, etc. 0191 is exceptional, as it is split into three, for Durham, Newcastle and Sunderland, so a "local rate" call (when there was a distinction) was possible from each one of them to each other, but the next set of codes 'outside' 0191 could not dial all 0191 numbers at local rate.

011x numbers came in more recently, to allow for larger numbers of customers in Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Bristol and Reading.

02x numbers offer the potential for even larger numbers of customers, whether in one major city such as London, or using part of the number space for different cities/towns in a region, hence Cardiff, Coventry, Portsmouth and Southampton being allocated their own set of numbers in the form 02x yyzz zzzz (where "yy" will always indicate that particular city). The 023 'region' could be the whole of the South coast, 024 the Midlands, 029 the whole of Wales, while 028 is fully used for the whole of Northern Ireland and all the old 01xxx codes have been replaced.

heh heh - this does get people worked up, including me!

Yes, it's 020 7xxx xxxx or 020 8xxx xxxx - and bloody annoying it is too! When you've lived in LOndon your entire life and got used to saying the number as xxx xxxx, to suddenly have to remember to stick an 8 on the front of it is INFURIATING.

I worked in Wokingham as well - that is an 0118 9xx xxxx - definitely a 4,3,4 configuration. Because, like with London, you need that 9 (or occasionally some other number in other areas of Greater Reading ) for the number to work. So there is no point in saying the code is 01189 - it ISN'T.

Of course there are also some 020 3xxx numbers and even some 020 0xxx numbers now, so don't forget them, TW !

Nah - they're after my time, NWG! not familiar with any of them at all, especially not 020 0xxx - where's that?

Still London, of course, but there are some numbers classed as "National Dialling only" where the whole number is needed. It would be "hidden" behind some 0845 or 0870 or 0800 number, so there would be a genuine geographic number, but not one that (m)any people would know or dial.

The "location" of any exchange is now a bit more "iffy" and in London, it may be the case that only BT would expect the first few digits to point to some inner or outer London exchange. Other companies can allocate numbers to almost anyone anywhere in the capital.

Voice over IP means someone such as yourself could have an 020 number (for free) which would ring on your home PC in Australia, without anyone this end paying for the call to Australia, and for you, the number could be used wherever you went (assuming a VoIP phone or using software on a laptop). You'd only be charged for outgoing calls via the London end (and some firms do have a 'rental' fee).

(Also, any big city such as London would have a mad dash whenever a VoIP firm offered numbers for free, so it might be awkward to get one now, completely free, if you had wanted one.)

Some delightfully geeky background information:
Number Format,
01 numbers,
Mixed areas,
ELNS areas,
NDO

Thanks for the links. I've not looked at any yet, but from the 'AA-' part of the domain name, I assume this is provided by Andrews and Arnold, a firm (now an ISP) which supplied my first Orange mobile in the mid-90s :)

Similar info (re 01..., etc) should be available from the Ofcom numbering page. They offer Excel spreadsheets of some data and a ZIP with the full collection of CSV files allowing the lot to be downloaded in one go.

I've not come across A&A before, don't know anything about them. :)

Embarrassment for PriceWaterhouseCoopers

I've just read a press release concerning the view of PwC in respect of Ofcom's proposals to reduce wholesale pricing for broadband charged by BT (Openreach).

Shows Tel: (0)207 213 2538 - check the job title:-

Sian. Mannakee
Technology, Telecoms, Entertainment, Media, Hospitality and Leisure, PR Manager, PwC
Tel: (0)207 213 2538
Mobile: 07715 484 884

Decided a short text might get the message across (since there is no e-mail address given)...

My Text:

Can I just point out that by promoting the (invalid) code 0207 for London you confuse the public. An embarrassment given your post, and shame for PwC.

If anyone knows the corporate structure of PwC and can PM me an e-mail address of someone near the top, I'd love to have chance for contact with them!

I opened this and got all confused!
networkguy- you are not barcodezebra are you?

Where is he?