lars@salt.acc.com (Lars J Poulsen) (07/26/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0253m03@vector.dallas.tx.us> dan@sics.se (Dan Sahlin) writes about numbering plan changes in Sweden and says: >For some reason, I find it much harder to remember an 8-digit number >than a 7 digit number, so I don't like those plans at all. Amen !! When I first moved from Denmark where the numbers were 6-digit, (written as "64 46 05") I at first found it hard to memorize 7-digit numbers (here written as "682-2272"). I still need to write them down (can't remember them for the 2 minutes it takes from a directory assistance call to the time I'm ready to dial) but local numbers are easier because of the limited number of prefixes I mostly deal with. And the universal (3)+3+4 format aids in recognizing incomplete numbers. I would really hate variable length numbers with up to 8 digits as is now planned for Stockholm. >I've read that Paris and Denmark have already changed into 8 digit numbers, >and that Norway is planning to do the same. Denmark is served by 4 telephone companies: - The eastern part of the country is served by KTAS, the Copenhagen telephone company. This is a common stock company but the controlling interest is held by various local governments (cities and counties). Thus, traditionally, is has exhibited the worst traits of bureaucratic governments and exploitative monopoly businesses. - The Jylland (Jutland) mainland is served by JTAS, the Jutland telephone company. This common stock company has always been very well managed, on the leading edge of technology and eager to pursue joint development efforts with telephone equipment manufacturers in their area (such as Kirk, now a division of Alcatel and Bang and Olufsen). The excellent service of JTAS was a welcome surprise for Copenhageners that moved west. In recent years, JTAS has moved agressively into cable television. - The island of Fyn (Funen) is served by FKTS, the Funen Municipal Telephone Company. This is a non-profit partnership between the local governments in the area and traditionally provided service somewhere between the level of the two larger companies. - The southern part of Jutland (under German rule from 1864-1920) as well as a few smaller islands and all long-distance service (international as well as between the above service areas) is handled by "Rigstelefonen", a division of the Post and Telegraph bureau of the ministry of public works. With the implementation of automatic dialing in the 1950's and 1960's, telephone numbers were standardized to 7 digits for a full number. In the Jutland areas, the number was divided into a two-digit area code (not dialed for calls within area; prefixed with 0 for calls out of area) and a 5-digit number; in the other service areas, a single-digit area code was followed by a 6-digit number. In the late 1960's the Jutland numbers were reassigned to match the 1+6 plan. I believe this was done in order to make numbers that were unused in some of the smaller areas available for new prefixes in the faster-growing Aarhus area. In the 1970's Copenhagen went through an area code split; the suburban ring of the old (01) area along with the adjoining strip of the old (03) area was turned into a new (02) area. This must have been planned long in advance, because it could be done without reassigning any prefixes. In early 1988 a switch to 8-digit number was announced. At first, the change consisted of ALWAYS DIALING THE AREA CODE, including the 0. In May 1989 the second part took effect: The 0 was replaced by new digits. Most numbers had predictable substitutions, (01 -> 31, 02 -> 42, 03 -> 53 etc.) and I think incoming calls (from overseas) to old numbers are still processed. My initial reaction to this reassignment was totally negative. I thought they could have freed up enough numbers simply by going to US-style 7-digit numbers, but after seeing how many additional numbers seem to be used up by FAXes and modems these days, I can see why they felt they needed more numbers. The alternative of adding more area codes (going back to 2-digit area codes) would have forced the trauma of simultaneous area code splits on the whole country. Dan Sahlin also suggests a universal "international selector" prefix. While this is a great idea, it would lead to much reassignment because everybody already is using the high-visibility escape sequences. I agree that "00" would be a good choice. In Denmark, 00 is used for "special services"; 0033 is directory assistance; 0034 is number-to-address lookup; 0051 is headline news; 0052 is sports news; 0053 is weather; 0055 is time; 0014 through 0019 are various overseas operators; 009 is international dial-it-yourself (I hope I remebered these right, it's been a few years). I suspect that Denmark may be preparing for 00 dialing, though, because before the recent reallocation these seemed to be available via 9900xx as well as via 00xx. / Lars Poulsen <lars@salt.acc.com> (800) 222-7308 or (805) 963-9431 ext 358 ACC Customer Service Affiliation stated for identification only My employer probably would not agree if he knew what I said !!