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Big Number Change - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Big Number Change

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Big Number Change was an update of telephone dialling codes in the UK in response to the rapid late 1990s growth of telecommunications and impending exhaustion of numbers. The change greatly expanded the pool of available numbers while helping to retain 'local dialling' (the ability to dial local numbers directly, without needing to dial an area code first). The change affected the dialling codes assigned to Cardiff, Coventry, London, Northern Ireland, Portsmouth and Southampton, culminating in a large switch on Saturday, April 22, 2000. In addition to new area/city codes for many parts of the UK, the switch was also coupled with a move to eight-digit local numbers, the adjustment of all mobile phone numbers in the UK to the 07 prefix and the alteration of many non-geographic codes to the new 08 range.

Contents

[edit] Geographical number changes

The following changes took place in Great Britain:

Area Old Number New Number
Inner London (0171) xxx xxxx (020) 7xxx xxxx
Outer London (0181) xxx xxxx (020) 8xxx xxxx
Portsmouth (01705) xxxxxx (023) 92xx xxxx
Southampton (01703) xxxxxx (023) 80xx xxxx
Coventry (01203) xxxxxx (024) 76xx xxxx
Cardiff (01222) xxxxxx (029) 20xx xxxx

In Northern Ireland, the situation was more complicated. While the primary reason for the changes was the lack of numbering capacity in Belfast (01232), this was not the only reason. When STD codes were introduced in the 1960s, Northern Ireland was allocated only 14 area codes for 34 charging groups. Normal practice on Great Britain was to allocate one area code per charging group, but as calls to Northern Ireland were national rate from anywhere in GB, it was not seen to be necessary to differentiate between all of them. So, area codes covering multiple charge groups were created; in practice this meant that some areas had longer area codes. For example, while Enniskillen was allocated the area code 0365 (0EK5), Kesh was allocated 03656 and Lisnaskea 03657. As a result, numbers in Enniskillen could not begin with 6 or 7, as this would conflict with those of Kesh or Lisnaskea.

All this meant that while Enniskillen's numbers could be six digits long, Kesh's and Lisnaskea's (and those of other dependent exchanges) could only be five digits, due to the limit of the length of a phone number. This severely restricted capacity in these areas. As a result, at the Big Number Change, all these dependent exchanges were migrated to different numbers than their parent exchanges; in this instance while Enniskillen's 01365 (the 1 coming from PhONEday) was migrated to 028 66, Kesh went from 013656 to 028 686 and Lisnaskea from 013657 to 028 677. This meant that Kesh could expand into the rest of the 028 68x range.

Note that the new numbering scheme groups numbers together such that the first digit identifies the county in alphabetical order. The exception is the Greater Belfast area where all numbers begin with 9, regardless of the county. The full list of changes for Northern Ireland [1] is as follows:

Area Old number New number Actual county (if different)

County Antrim

Ballycastle (012657) xxxxx (028) 207x xxxx
Martinstown (012667) xxxxx (028) 217x xxxx
Ballymena (5-digit) (01266) xxxxx (028) 256x xxxx
Ballymena (6-digit) (01266) xxxxxx (028) 25xx xxxx
Ballymoney (012656) xxxxx (028) 276x xxxx
Larne (01574) xxxxxx (028) 28xx xxxx
Kilrea (012665) xxxxx (028) 295x xxxx Londonderry

County Armagh

Newry (5-digit) (01693) xxxxx (028) 302x xxxx Down
Newry (6-digit) (01693) xxxxxx (028) 30xx xxxx Down
Armagh (01861) xxxxxx (028) 37xx xxxx
Portadown (01762) xxxxxx (028) 38xx xxxx Partially in Down

County Down

Banbridge (018206) xxxxx (028) 406x xxxx
Rostrevor (016937) xxxxx (028) 417x xxxx
Kircubbin (012477) xxxxx (028) 427x xxxx
Newcastle (013967) xxxxx (028) 437x xxxx
Downpatrick (01396) xxxxxx (028) 44xx xxxx

County Fermanagh

Enniskillen (01365) xxxxxx (028) 66xx xxxx
Lisnaskea (013657) xxxxx (028) 677x xxxx
Kesh (013656) xxxxx (028) 686x xxxx

County Londonderry

Coleraine (6 digit) (01265) xxxxxx (028) 70xx xxxx
Coleraine (5 digit) (01265) xxxxx (028) 703x xxxx
Derry (01504) xxxxxx (028) 71xx xxxx
Limavady (015047) xxxxx (028) 777x xxxx
Magherafelt (6 digit) (01648) xxxxxx (028) 79xx xxxx
Magherafelt (5 digit) (01648) xxxxx (028) 796x xxxx

County Tyrone

Carrickmore (016627) xxxxx (028) 807x xxxx
Newtownstewart (016626) xxxxx (028) 816x xxxx
Omagh (01662) xxxxxx (028) 82xx xxxx
Ballygawley (016625) xxxxx (028) 855x xxxx
Cookstown (016487) xxxxx (028) 867x xxxx
Dungannon (01868) xxxxxx (028) 87xx xxxx
Fivemiletown (013655) xxxxx (028) 895x xxxx

Belfast area

Belfast (01232) xxxxxx (028) 90xx xxxx Antrim and Down
Bangor (01247) xxxxxx (028) 91xx xxxx Down
Lisburn (01846) xxxxxx (028) 92xx xxxx Antrim and Down
Ballyclare (01960) xxxxxx (028) 93xx xxxx Antrim
Antrim (01849) xxxxxx (028) 94xx xxxx Antrim
Saintfield (01238) xxxxxx (028) 97xx xxxx Down

[edit] Non Geographic Number Changes

The following changes where made to non geographic numbering ranges to bring them in the 08 Special Services range.

Code Charging Rate Old Number New Number
0345 Local Rate 0345 xxxxxx 0845 7xxxxxx
0645 Local Rate 0645 xxxxxx 0845 9xxxxxx
03745 National Rate 0374 5xxxxx 0870 4xxxxxx
0541 National Rate 0541 xxxxxx 0870 1xxxxxx
0990 National Rate 0990 xxxxxx 0870 5xxxxxx


[edit] Misunderstandings

Some widespread misunderstandings about area codes came about with the Big Number Change, most notably with London area codes. There is a widespread but erroneous assumption that London has two area codes 0207 and 0208, whereas in fact it has just one: 020. Similar misunderstandings came about with a few other area codes.

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