pkh%computer-science.nottingham.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk (Kevin Hopkins) (09/05/89)
( Originally sent on Tue, 22 Aug 89 13:32:05 +0100 but the UK gateway also held this one up for another unknown reason - pkh.) In reply to Chris Hayward's message the Republic of Ireland (Eire) has only moved to a fully STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialling, is this term used anywhere else other than UK and Ireland?) system within the last ten years. Until then you could not IDD to Ireland from the UK, you always had to dial the UK Operator (no, not the International Operator) and ask for an Irish number. Initially Ireland only made their capital Dublin STD, then their major cities. Like the UK the STD codes for these cities were 01, 021, 031, ... These were made available from the UK after a few years by dialing 0001 + subscriber's number, 0002 + SN, ... Two or three years ago British Telecom (BT) decided to free all these 000x codes and allow full IDD dialling to Ireland using 010 + 353 + Area Code (minus leading zero) + subsciber's number. 0001 + subscriber's number has still been kept on as a quick form of accessing Dublin numbers from the UK. As the 000x codes were only introduced in the UK about 10 years ago they could not have influenced the choice of 010 as the International Access Code, as I am sure IDD to major countries (US, Europe, Australia, etc.) was available long before that. BT is now assigning 00xx codes in mainland UK, and maybe in Northern Ireland as well if they don't clash with those described below, to Value Added Services (i.e. the mucky phone call brigade) along with 0898, and charging a bomb for the calls. Already 0055, 0066 and 0077 have been used. It looks as though BT are not going to move to 00 as the International Access Code. Northern Ireland is a different case. It is part of the UK but the 000x and some 00xx codes are used to access all the Republic of Ireland's STD codes. I was over visiting my grandmother in Ireland this earlier this month and the access codes FROM Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland are listed in the Republic's phone book. Also, from the Republic of Ireland 03 + Area Code (including the leading zero) is used to access numbers in mainland UK, not 16 + 44 + Area Code (without leading zero) + subscriber's number. 08 + Area Code (including the leading zero) is used to access numbers in Northern Ireland. Exceptions to these are the following quick dial codes: 031 (instead of 03 + 01) London 032 (instead of 03 + 021) Birmingham 033 (instead of 03 + 031) Edinburgh 034 (instead of 03 + 041) Glasgow 035 (instead of 03 + 051) Liverpool 036 (instead of 03 + 061) Manchester 084 (instead of 08 + 0232) Belfast There is no short code for Tynside as yet (UK code 091, 039?) and I presume 037 and 038 will be used for London instead of 031 when the UK area code 01 is scrapped next May. One of the advantages of a lately developed telephone system in the Republic of Ireland is that it is now largely a digitally system. Calls are completed once the last digit is dialled and the lines are crystal clear. Also, from a private phone local calls are charged as just one unit, irrespective of duration (one unit is approximately 11 pence at the moment). Now if British Telecom moved to this system for local dialling in the UK it would be worth getting a modem :-) All of this information is correct as of mid-August when I was in Ireland. I have had great experience of UK-Eire calls having many relatives in Ireland. > When IDD came along, it would have been politically insensitive > (suicidal?) to make Eire calls "international", As described above IDD came along and BT did in fact make Irish calls international calls, though at a cheaper rate than for the rest of Europe. +--------------------------------------------+--------------------------------+ | K.Hopkins%cs.nott.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk | Kevin Hopkins, | | or ..!mcvax!ukc!nott-cs!K.Hopkins | Department of Computer Science,| | or in the UK: K.Hopkins@uk.ac.nott.cs | University of Nottingham, | | CHAT-LINE: +44 602 484848 x 3815 | Nottingham, ENGLAND, NG7 2RD | +--------------------------------------------+--------------------------------+
dave@uunet.uu.net (Dave Horsfall) (09/15/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0349m02@vector.dallas.tx.us> K.Hopkins%computer-science.nottingham.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk writes: | | In reply to Chris Hayward's message the Republic of Ireland (Eire) has only | moved to a fully STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialling, is this term used anywhere | else other than UK and Ireland?) system within the last ten years. No replies to this so far, so... Indeed it is - it's used in Australia, along with ISD (International Subscriber Dialling). There are very few manual exchanges left in the country, incidentally. AXE is slowly replacing step-by-step and Xbar. Would I be wrong in guessing that most (if not all) of what used to be the British Commonwealth countries use the STD/ISD terms? Speak up, Canucks and Kiwis! -- Dave Horsfall (VK2KFU), Alcatel STC Australia, dave@stcns3.stc.oz dave%stcns3.stc.oz.AU@uunet.UU.NET, ...munnari!stcns3.stc.oz.AU!dave