Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom

The UK telephone numbering plan, also known as the National Numbering Plan, is regulated by the Office of Communications(Ofcom), which replaced the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel) in 2003.

The telephone service in the United Kingdom was originally provided by local city councils, until in 1912 all except the telephone service of Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire, were bought out by the Post Office. Post Office Telephones also operated telephone services in the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey), and the Isle of Man, until 1969], when the Islands took over responsibility for their own postal and telephone services.

Post Office Telephones was reorganised in the early 1970s as British Telecommunications (British Telecom, or BT), and was one of the first nationalised industries to be privatised by the Conservative government in the mid-1980s. The Hull Telephone Department was itself sold by Hull City Council as Kingston Communications in the late 1990s.

History

Introduction of Area Codes

Area codes were first introduced in 1958, allowing a caller to call another telephone direct instead of via a manual telephone exchange, a process known as Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD), although the process was not completed until 1979. The four-digit codes were originally assigned based on the first three letters of the respective place's name and the corresponding numbers on a telephone keypad. For example Aylesbury was given the STD code 0296, where the letter A can be found on the number 2, the letter Y on the number 9 and the letter L on the number 6. However as more and more places were given STD codes this system became unworkable. The use of alphabetic exchange (area) codes was abandoned in the 1960s.

Calls to Ireland

Until the late 1980s, calls to Dublin in the Republic of Ireland were made using the code 0001. This was discontinued, so that all calls to the Republic from the UK had to be dialled in the international format using the international access code (since 1995 00) and country code (353).

However, calls from Northern Ireland to the Republic continue to be charged at UK national or local rates.

Director System

The Director system was put in place in six cities, including London, where only a 2 or 3 digit code was used for the city, followed by a 3 digit code, represented by letters, to identify the local exchange. These were

01  London
021 Birmingham
031 Edinburgh
041 Glasgow
051 Liverpool
061 Manchester
091 Newcastle upon Tyne (introduced mid-1980s, also included Durham)

In May 1990, the growth in demand for phone numbers in London caused the London area,to be split:

071 inner London
081 outer London

PhONE Day

On 'PhONE Day', April 16, 1995, the digit '1' was inserted into area codes, for example, central London's 071 became 0171. This was with a view to reorganising the numbering plan, so that the first two digits would indicate the type of service called:

01 Geographic area codes
02 New geographic area codes
03 Geographic area code expansion
04 Reserved for future use
05 Corporate numbering 
06 Corporate numbering expansion 
07 Mobile phones, pagers and personal numbering
08 Freephone and shared cost
09 Premium rate- similar to US 1 900 number range 

The international access code also changed on 'PhONE Day', from 010 to 00. Five new area codes were introduced for cities that were running low on phone numbers - and a digit was prepended to each number.

Leeds       0113 2xx xxxx (was 0532 xxx xxx)
Sheffield   0114 2xx xxxx (was 0742 xxx xxx)
Nottingham  0115 9xx xxxx (was 0602 xxx xxx)
Leicester   0116 2xx xxxx (was 0533 xxx xxx)
Bristol     0117 9xx xxxx (was 0272 xxx xxx)

On April 22, 2000, the second phase of this came into operation. With 02* freed up by the previous reorganisation, it could be re-used again.

Inner London   020 7xxx xxxx (was 0171 xxxx xxx)
Outer London   020 8xxx xxxx (was 0181 xxxx xxx)

Southampton    023 80xx xxxx (was 01703 xxx xxx)
Portsmouth     023 92xx xxxx (was 01705 xxx xxx)

Coventry       024 76xx xxxx (was 01203 xxx xxx)

Cardiff        029 20xx xxxx (was 01222 xxx xxx)

Also, all Northern Ireland numbers were moved into the single area code 028.

Format

The leading '0' of an area code is called the trunk code. All calls within the same area code and geographically adjacent codes are local calls, more distant calls are charged at the national rate. Following the changes in 1995, 2000 and 2001, the numbering range in use is as follows:

Geographic Numbering

• 01xxx xxxxxx - the commonest geographical number format, a five digit area code and six digit subscriber number, e.g:

01382 Dundee
01482 Hull
01582 Luton

• 01x1 xxx xxxx - the geographical number format for the larger cities, a four digit area code, with a seven digit subscriber number where the first three digits identifies an area within the city.

0121 Birmingham
0131 Edinburgh
0141 Glasgow
0151 Liverpool
0161 Manchester
0171 used for inner London until 2000
0181 used for outer London until 2000
0191 Newcastle upon Tyne

• 011x xxxxxxx - the geographical number format for a second tier of large cities, a four digit area code, with a seven digit subscriber number, e.g:

0113 Leeds
0114 Sheffield
0115 Nottingham 
0116 Leicester
0117 Bristol
0118 Reading phased in between 1996 and 1998
 

• 02x xxxx xxxx - a new geographical number format with an 8-digit subscriber number, introduced for areas which had run out of spare numbers using six or seven digit numbers, e.g:

 020 London
 023 South Hampshire (Southampton and Portsmouth) 
 024 Coventry
 028 Northern Ireland (Belfast 028 90xx xxxx, Derry 028 71xx xxxx)
 029 Cardiff (may become code for Wales)

Nongeographic Numbering

• 05x xxxx xxxx - Reserved for Corporate Numbering.

 055 xxxx xxxx Used by BT for its Broadband Voice service.

The '056' range is being proposed by Ofcom for Voice over Broadband (VoB) services, which will use Voice over Internet Protocol. However, many companies planning to provide these services in the UK have expressed misgivings about the use of non-geographic numbering. They argue that it may be more expensive to call, and inaccessible from outside the UK, or even from UK mobile networks. [1]

The 0500 range was previously used for some freephone services, of which some remain,
e.g., 0500 909693 the phone-in number for BBC Radio Five Live.

• 07xxx xxxxxx - mobile phones, pagers and personal numbering. Individual mobile phone companies are allocated different ranges within the 077xx, 078xx and 079xx area codes. Changes to mobile numbers were mostly straight replacements, e.g. Vodafone customers on the 0378 block became 07778.

 070xx Personal Numbering
 076xx Pagers
 077xx Mobile Phones (former 03xx and 04xx - Vodafone and Cellnet) 
 078xx Mobile Phones (former 05xx, 06xx and 08xx - Vodafone and Cellnet)
 079xx Mobile phones (former 09xx - mostly Orange) 

• 08xx -- Non-Geographic Fixed-Rate, or Special Rate Services, e.g.

 0800 xxx xxxx or 0800 xxx xxx Free Phone
 0845 xxx xxxx Local Rate
 0870 xxx xxxx National Rate 
 0844 xxx xxxx Fixed Special Local Rate
 0871 xxx xxxx Fixed Special National Rate

• 09xxx xxxxxx - Premium Rate Services (No Maximum Call Rate).

Crown Dependencies

The Crown Dependencies of Jersey Guernsey, and the Isle of Man continue to participate in the UK's numbering plan, using the following numbering ranges:

• Guernsey

 01481  Fixed Line
 07781  Mobile Phones and Pagers

• Jersey

01534 Fixed Line
07797 Mobile Phones and Pagers

• Isle of Man

 01624  Fixed Line
 07624  Mobile Phones and Pagers

On the Isle of Man, both fixed and mobile phone numbers can be dialled locally in the six-digit format.

Drama Numbers

Ofcom has also reserved certain number ranges for use in television dramas and films, so as to avoid the risk of people having their telephone numbers displayed, and receiving unwanted calls. This is similar to the use of fictitious telephone numbers in the United States with the digits '555'. These are known as 'drama numbers', and either use unused number ranges or area codes that have been withdrawn from use. For example, the area code 01632 is not in use, although 0632 was originally used for Newcastle upon Tyne until the late 1980s.

Special Service Numbers

The few telephone numbers which are less than eleven digits long are mostly in the 0845 range, e.g. 0800 1111 the national ChildLine helpline, and 0845 4647 for NHS Direct medical advice. There are also codes for use with Caller ID, known in the UK as 'Caller Display':

 141 Number Withhold
 1470 Number Release (when permanently withheld)
 1471 Call Return (caller may press '3' to return call on hearing number)

The national emergency services call number is 999, although the international number 112 is also recognised.

The operator is obtained via 100, while directory enquiries, formerly 192 is now provided by different companies in the 118xxx range e.g. 118500, 11 88 88.

See also

• Telephone numbering plan
• Telephone number
  • Number portability

External Links

• UK Phone Information
• brainstorm.co.uk UK STD Code Search