> http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/phone/numbering/dial-the-code/
>
> Due to telephone number exhaustion, they're asking everybody to upgrade
> to IPv6 - er, I mean, they're changing the numbering plan.
>
> Currently, all area codes start with 0. But that means you cannot assign
> anybody a telephone number that starts with 0, see? So they're making it
> so you always have to dial the area code. That way, we know it's the
> area code because it's at the beginning of the number, not because it
> starts with a 0.
>
> Rather than, say, add new area codes or something, which would only
> affect people assigned these new numbers.

that's the goal.

Now that people always have to dial the 10 digits, you no longer need:

if ( first digit == 0 )
then { expect 10 digits because it's a long-distance call}
else { expect 8 digits because it's a local call}

So you can introduce new area codes that start with any number.

In North America, it used to be that the 2nd digit of the area code had 
to be 0 or 1, and the 2nd digit of the exchange couldn't.  This was 
because the selectors were hard wired to route the call to external 
turnks.

In the mid 90s, when cell phones became popular, they removed that 
restriction since by then, all phone switches were digital and you no 
longer had that hard-wiring restriction.  this allowed them to create 
new area codes that had any digit in the 2nd position, as well as 
assigning local exchanges with 0 or 1 in that position.  Giving north 
America 800 new available area codes, and each area code 20,000 new 
possible numbers.


-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }

Post a reply to this message