julian@bongo.uucp (julian macassey) (07/19/89)
It appears that British Telecom is changing the London area code from 01
to 071 for central London and 081 for Outer London. I read this in the July
1st edition of the New Scientist - not exactly a reliable source of Telco
info. But I have read nothing here about it yet, and am sure some of would
like to know. I am also sure that I will be flamed from the UK for not
getting my facts right. So here are the facts as I have divined them from
California:
The change is to 2 digits if you consider the 0 digit is a leader as the
1 digit is in the U.S. i.e. 1(213).
Paraphrased here is the New Scientist article:
There are currently 4 million subscribers in the London (01) area code.
British Telecom says the practical limit is 4.5 Million which will be
reached some time in late 1990. Central London currently has 1.5 Million
subscribers. Outer London has 2.5 Million. Note that the standard London
phone number is a 7 digit number, just like the U.S. a three digit CO code
and a four digit subscriber suffix. i.e. 353-4622. The Changeover will be
May 6 1990. The master plan they say is to have all major cities with a 3
digit (0NN) area code.
The New Scientist moans and groans about the inconvenience and futility
of it all. Alas, the usual moaning and groaning of people who wake to find
they have a new area code.
And a final question for all amateur spooks and freaks of old: What
exactly was the FEDeral manual exchange in London during the sixties? Does
it still exist?
Yours
--
Julian Macassey, n6are julian@bongo ucla-an!denwa!bongo!julian
n6are@k6iyk (Packet Radio) n6are.ampr.org [44.16.0.81] voice (213) 653-4495pkh%computer-science.nottingham.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk (Kevin Hopkins) (07/20/89)
In his message Julian Macassey said: -> But I have read nothing here about it yet, and am sure some of -> would like to know. Try the archives late April / early May, I sent a full description of the notification that BT had released to their UK customers. I can't find my copy of that digest just now, and I'm off on my holidays tomorrow, otherwise I would have tried to find it. -> The change is to 2 digits if you consider the 0 digit is a leader as the -> 1 digit is in the U.S. i.e. 1(213). Like many other countries - Japan I believe is one of them along with West Germany, rest of Europe, etc. - we don't consider 0 to be a leader. It is an intergral part of our area codes. London is considered to be moving to *3* figure area codes from next May. -> The master plan they say is to have all major cities with a 3 -> digit (0NN) area code. All major cities will in fact have a 0N1 code, the rest use 0NMN where M is the digits 0 and 2-9. The "master plan" is completed on 6th May 1990. These are not flames, just clearing up a few points. +--------------------------------------------+--------------------------------+ | 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 | +--------------------------------------------+--------------------------------+
chris@gargoyle.uchicago.edu (Chris Johnston) (07/29/89)
When dialing into a country from outside, the leading zero must be stripped off the area code. For example dialing from Switzerland to within Switzerland one might dial 056 XX-XX-XX but from Italy to Switzerland one would dial +41 56 XX-XX-XX. (41 is the country code.) (When I was in Europe in June it took me more than a week to successfully place an International pay phone call. Quite a culture shock. On a preious trip I found Scandinavian pay phones were similarly traumatizing.) cj
haeb@ibmpcug.co.uk (Harry Broomhall) (08/17/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0261m04@vector.dallas.tx.us> chris@gargoyle.uchicago. edu (Chris Johnston) writes: >When dialing into a country from outside, the leading zero must be >stripped off the area code. For example dialing from Switzerland to Unfortunatly this is *NOT* true for all countries, so beware! (Standards? I love standards. There are so many of them!) Regards, Harry. -- Automatic Disclaimer: The views expressed above are those of the author alone and may not represent the views of the IBM PC User Group.