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Author Topic: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing  (Read 6655 times)

sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #15 on: November 15, 2020, 11:59:01 PM »

I haven't heard any great fuss from the places where this has been implemented several years ago due to shortage of available numbers.

https://www.area-codes.org.uk/more/areas-without-local-dialling.php

Fascinating that people are happy with that.

I wonder if the average age of population in these areas might be too young to remember the even better system (my opinion), based on initial characters of exchange locations?

I was brought up in an area of Glasgow served by the Ibrox exchange.   Calling within the city there was no need to remember a numeric area code, you just had to remember ‘Ibrox’ and  dial the first 3 letters using the alpha holes on the dial, ‘I’,’B’,’R’, followed by an easily remembered 4 digit number of the person you wanted.

Wonderful system, happy days.   So much for progress, says I if nobody else.   :(
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gt94sss2

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #16 on: November 16, 2020, 04:22:15 AM »

I presume that snippet was from BT Residential? because BT Business already require you to dial the full STD code for local numbers as well, always been that way since I took out their DV service back in Oct 2019. So they're just aligning both Residential and Business Digital Voices, I guess the next step is for BTR to also roll out a smartphone VOIP app like BTB have (Cloud Voice Express). This allows you to do stuff like make/receive VOIP calls from your smartphone, access voicemail, block numbers etc and works very well.

Yes, the email was from BT Residential with whom the line has a FTTC connection. I can't see the change creating any new numbers for years in London (where the line is) for years though given we still have the rest of the 020 code to use.

I would love a  smartphone VOIP app though BT withdrew their Smart Talk app at the end of 2018 citing low usage..

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Weaver

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #17 on: November 16, 2020, 09:06:55 AM »

I do dimly remember alpha holes on a dial, now I come to think of it.
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jelv

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #18 on: November 16, 2020, 10:00:30 AM »

1) I may be able commit a 6 digit number to memory for a short time.  For example, I see an advert that interests me in the village newsletter I can memorise the number, put down the paper, then pick up the phone and dial the number.   For longer numbers I’d need to refer back to the paper half way through dialling.

2) When I search to find a local tradesman, I generally favour one that lists a landline number with an area code that supports his claim to be ‘local’.

"Local" numbers will still begin with the same first 5 digits as your own number, so you can still just memorise the last six digits and when dialling, dial your own STD code and then the remembered number. You'll also still be able to recognise numbers with the same area code as yours.

What the change means is that they will be able to allocate numbers where the first digit after the area code is a zero or one.

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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #19 on: November 16, 2020, 02:36:02 PM »

"Local" numbers will still begin with the same first 5 digits as your own number, so you can still just memorise the last six digits and when dialling, dial your own STD code and then the remembered number. You'll also still be able to recognise numbers with the same area code as yours.

What the change means is that they will be able to allocate numbers where the first digit after the area code is a zero or one.

Your quote from my earlier post was incomplete, skipping the first two sentences, which set context for the remainder...

I hope this doesn’t mean BT are doing away with the whole concept of local area codes under VoIP?

I find area codes extremely useful for at least two Further purposes, not just lazy dialling’.


1) I may be able commit a 6 digit number to memory for a short time.  For example, I see an advert that interests me in the village newsletter I can memorise the number, put down the paper, then pick up the phone and dial the number.   For longer numbers I’d need to refer back to the paper half way through dialling.

2) When I search to find a local tradesman, I generally favour one that lists a landline number with an area code that supports his claim to be ‘local’.

Interesting also that they seem to be referring to it all as a huge network switch to ‘digital’.   Local lines excepted, hasn’t the UK PSTN been almost entirely digital for several decades, since rollout of System X from 70s and early 80s?


If, as you suggest, it is the case that they are not doing away with the whole concept of area codes then indeed, these problems do not arise. 

But do area codes serve any purpose in the VoIP world?  If not, why would BT continue to maintain and assign them?
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j0hn

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #20 on: November 16, 2020, 05:10:06 PM »

Quote
But do area codes serve any purpose in the VoIP world?  If not, why would BT continue to maintain and assign them?

Keeping area codes is the easiest thing to do

There's nothing to maintain.
Assigning them is no work, they are assigned automatically based on area, obviously.

What's the alternative?
Having newly issued numbers be totally random or assign any old area code to anyone?

I can't think of a viable, working alternative to area codes that wouldn't cause considerable confusion for no gain.

Everyone with a current landline would have their number starting with an identical area code to everyone else around them.
Anyone who was issued a new number would be on a different numbering system.

Isn't it just easier to keep area codes assigned as they are?

It's easy enough to enter the area code when dialing a local number. I do it on my mobile phone most days.
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sevenlayermuddle

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #21 on: November 16, 2020, 06:35:18 PM »

Seems to me that by maintaining area codes for new subscribers, they perpetuate the recurring problems whereby area codes fill up and need to be enlarged, so everybody in town has to accept an extra digit or two in their existing numbers.   I can see that becoming even more frequent with VoIP, as new VoIP numbers cost pretty much nothing. 

It’s happened a few times over the years and from BT’s perspective, would be a problem well worth solving for good, by simply disassociating geographic identities from numbers.   

New numbers assigned at random is, after all, what we’ve always accepted for mobiles...
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Chrysalis

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #22 on: November 18, 2020, 10:37:33 AM »

Its been a very long time since I made a call from a landline so already used to using area codes for local numbers.
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Alex Atkin UK

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #23 on: November 18, 2020, 09:51:42 PM »

To be fair, most of the time when its done here (usually my mum) its probably none-regional codes anyway for government/council/supermarkets/etc (where you are left on hold for ages so she worries about running out of credit on her phone) so we would key in the full number too.

But I think its short sighted to not consider there will still be people who struggle to adjust to this sort of change.  eg I know someone who I can't even get to use Netflix when I provide the box, Internet and account, because its too complicated.
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tubaman

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #24 on: November 19, 2020, 07:36:52 AM »

I'll be sad to see local dialling disappear, but then I was sad when local exchange codes (ie between local adjacent exchanges) were binned back in the '90s.
 :)
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4candles

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #25 on: November 20, 2020, 01:36:34 PM »

I was sad to see Strowger disappear - no romance in a silicon chip.  :(
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tubaman

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #26 on: November 20, 2020, 01:38:16 PM »

I was sad to see Strowger disappear - no romance in a silicon chip.  :(

So true - a running Strowger exchanger was a beautiful sight to behold.
 :)
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tiffy

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #27 on: November 20, 2020, 02:41:01 PM »

Quote
So true - a running Strowger exchanger was a beautiful sight to behold.

Indeed, many years ago used to sneak into the local PBX room of the company where I served my apprenticeship and worked, was facinated by the whizzing uniselector banks.
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4candles

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #28 on: November 20, 2020, 08:01:38 PM »

The sight, the sound, the smell - almost like a living thing.
I've never been a steam locomotive buff, but I suppose the attraction is similar.
I loved working in UAXs and TXE2s. In the years following retirement I used to have dreams about the former, but never the latter.
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licquorice

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Re: Phasing out local/non-STD dialing
« Reply #29 on: November 20, 2020, 09:54:35 PM »

Yes indeed, spent many happy hours adding 'A' units to UAXs, SAXs were never quite the same somehow although Strowger. At least with Crossbar exchanges there were still lots of relays and electro-mechanical switches unlike TXE2s.
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