pcf@galadriel.british-telecom.co.uk (Pete French) (11/13/89)
From: pkh%computer-science.nottingham.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk (Kevin Hopkins) >In the UK most calls, if not all, within your STD (area) code are >classed as local, but there is no easy way to determine which other >calls are also classed as local. A few years ago most local calls >used a special local code (usually starting with a 9) instead of the >STD code, so that helped. Things like 9 were just an abbreviation, not a special code for a local call. I am still on an kind of sub-exchange at home - from anywhere in the U.K. you can dial 0206 225407 to get me, most people consider my number to be Colchester 225407. My number is actually Wivenhoe 5407 - you get from Colchester to Wivenhoe by dialing 22. From inside the village you just dial 5407. If I pick up the phone I can dial a 4 digit number which will connect me to a Wivenhoe number - to get to Colchester I dial 9. Most of the outlying villages use 9 to get a Colchester number - to get a Wivenhoe number they can dial 922 (simple, isn't it). But 9 is just an abbreviation for 0206. I can also dial 0206 to get to Colchester and it will still be charged as a local call. There is just a big table of codes, routes and charges in the exchange as far as I know. The only way to find out the charge rate for a call is to look it up in the local phone codes book. >Also BT are phasing out the least populous STD codes and placing their >subscribers on the exchanges in the nearest large town, so as to >recover some spare STD codes. Yup - in a few months my number will become Colchester 825407. The curious thing is that I had a friend who had this happen to him, but despite the fact that he is now on the main exchange officially, he still has to dial 9 to get to it from his phone! I think I am going to give up trying to understand the British phone network. Doesn't anyone from BTUK read this who can give an accurate explanation ? -Pete French.