On Sat, 08 Oct 2005 23:02:17 +0100, Anon Y Mous <..@..> wrote:

>But why pander to stupidity? Do these people dial the full area code
>inside London as well? London has EIGHT DIGIT LOCAL NUMBERS! The whole

Sadly, most people in London now appear to dial the full number rather
than the 8 digit local version. People i've shown 8 digit dialing seem
amazed and confused as to how it's possible!

This seems to be due to the fact that for 10 years (from 01 > 071/081
in 1990 to the remerging as 020 7/8 in 2000) it was only possible to
call across town using the full number.

>point of changing from 7 to eight digits was to increase number
>capacity, it would be an utterly pointless exercise if all that happened
>was 0171->0207 and 0181->0208.

It was. It would have been much simpler and cheaper for all if they'd
just added additional overlay codes as they do in the US. Effectively,
as far as most people are concerned that's just what's happening
anyway with 020-3.

These number changes seem to occur around every 5 years so I guess
we're due for another one any day. 01 for London anyone?

Rgds
Jonathan