Why London Phone Numbers Won’t Run Out

April 12, 2011 - PRLog -- Nottingham, UK: In several press releases issued during the past few weeks it has been argued that the United Kingdom faces a telecommunications problem of epic proportions and, in particular, that the Greater London area will be faced with an unpleasant dilemma due to the fact that it will simply run out of telephone numbers for both business and personal use. The information that has been published on the internet is simply not true, argues Jenny Forbes, Head of Marketing at Organic Numbers and a leading expert on UK phone numbers.

Forbes notes that recent press speculation has stated that 0203, 0207 and 0208 have been referred to as STD area codes for the London area. “No such STD codes have ever existed for the London area at any time”, insists Forbes. “The STD code for London is 020” she states categorically.

London changed over to the single 020 area code in the year 2000, replacing the previous 0171 and 0181 numbers which had existed since 1995, when they replaced 071 and 081 numbers. Previous to all of that it was 01 for the capital. Also in the year 2000 the London area moved away from using 7 digit local numbers to having 8 digit local numbers. This was done both in order to massively increase capacity and so that no further London code changes would be necessary for a very long time. In fact it is highly likely that there will be a plentiful supply of telephone numbers for the London areas for at least the next century. After so many changes in such a short period of time, it is not surprising that people are confused as to what the London area code is!

Initially only local numbers beginning with 7 or 8 were used after the 020 code eg 020 7890 1234 or 020 8901 2345. Then in 2005, local numbers beginning with the digit 3 also came into use eg 020 3456 7890. Therefore "(020) 3" is NOT a "new code" as has been reported in the media. It is very misleading indeed to describe "(020) 3 as such. London has only one code. That code is 020. The introduction of the initial digit 3 within the 020 area code in 2005 has raised the possible permutations of phone numbers by around ten million. The changes that were made in 2000 have ensured that the London area now has a lot of spare capacity for the future. In particular, numbers beginning (020) 2, (020) 4, (020) 5, (020) 6 and (020) 9 are earmarked to be made available for use. It's highly likely that this spare capacity will likely take more than a century to use up.

So, it's clear to see that phone numbers for the London area are not running out. Far from it! OFCOM have earmarked numbers for use in the future. You can check this out from the large number of entries marked "London expansion" on the OFCOM's UK dialplan spreadsheet which is contained in their website.

Further information on London phone numbers and other local phone numbers can be found on the following website, provided by Organic Numbers: http://www.organiclocalnumbers.co.uk/

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