[Talk-GB] Phone numbers in little England

[David Earl]

Bournemouth (01202)[1] and before long Brighton and Hove (01273), 
Aberdeen (01224), Milton Keynes (01908), Bradford (01274) and Cambridge 
(01223) which are all running short of numbers[2], require or will 
require the 'area code' to be dialled as part of the number, even if you 
are inside the area (so that they can use numbers within the area 
starting zero so giving another 100,000 numbers).

So the area code is becoming meaningless as a separate thing anyway in 
the UK.

(I don't know why they couldn't just have more than one area code serve 
the same place for new numbers, e.g. have 02223 as well as 01223 for 
Cambridge which would be upward compatible, but presumably there's some 
technical difficulty doing that).

David

[1] http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/dial-the-code/
[2] 
http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/2011/09/plans-to-safeguard-the-supply-of-uk-telephone-numbers/

On 22/08/2013 11:42, Nick Whitelegg wrote:
>
> So to dial Portsmouth from Southampton you need only do 92xxxxxx ? Not
> tried it.
>
> Really, to make 023 a "Solent" area code though in any meaningful sense,
> you need Fareham, Gosport, Hedge End, Whiteley etc to all be in the 023
> area.
>
> Nick
>
> -----Andy Street <mail at andystreet.me.uk> wrote: -----
> To: talk-gb at openstreetmap.org
> From: Andy Street <mail at andystreet.me.uk>
> Date: 22/08/2013 11:10AM
> Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] Phone numbers in little England
>
> On Thu, 22 Aug 2013 09:31:49 +0100
> Tom Hughes <tom at compton.nu> wrote:
>
>  > On 22/08/13 09:01, Lester Caine wrote:
>  >
>  > > Personally I still think of 0207 as Inner London and 0208 as Outer
>  > > London, but moving the 7/8 as part of the exchange sort of makes
>  > > sense these days.
>  >
>  > Well you think incorrectly then, as that has not been the case for
>  > some time, either in theory or in practice. On top of which 0203 is
>  > now in use as well...
>
>
> I don't think the UK population has really cottoned on to the idea of
> three digit area codes. We have a similar situation here on the South
> Coast where some people think the area code is 02380 for Southampton and
> 02392 for Portsmouth when it is actually 023 for the whole area. I do
> sometimes wonder whether it is a simple misunderstanding or the old
> local rivalry and not wanting to get lumped in with "that lot at the
> other end of the M27"! ;)
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Andy Street
>
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