08-Sep-2011 14:09

More Changes! Local Calls will Require Area Codes

From early next year 2012 some parts of the UK will require residential & business users to dial the area code even for local phone calls…

Ofcom, the Telecoms regulatory body, is introducing changes to increase the supply of numbers in areas where they are now pretty scarce.

It seems that Bournemouth is set to be the first town to initiate the system before being rolled out to areas including Brighton, Aberdeen, Milton Keynes, Bradford and Cambridge by 2016.

Currently, it is unnecessary to have to dial the area code when making a local call anywhere in the UK & there will of course be no extra charges for these calls within the same area code.

To dispel any possible confusion with current areas coding, Ofcom cannot allocate any phone numbers in which the first digit after the area code is ‘0’ or ‘1’ because, if dialed without the area code, the number could be confused with other dialing codes.

Surprise, surprise, the regulatory body also announced plans to begin charging communications providers for allocations of numbers in various areas around the UK.

Ofcom said, "This is to encourage communications providers to consider their plans carefully before applying for new bulk allocations of phone numbers and incentivise the return of unused numbers to Ofcom".

Hmmm… with all the fairly recent changes to area codes around the UK, is this not simply another example of bureaucracy short-sightedness and mismanagement…?

Norman