A Rant

[drplokta]

Since I've abdicated, I guess this isn't actually legally binding. But everyone should do it anyway.

How to Write UK Phone Numbers

UK phone numbers are written as the dialling code, including the 0 national prefix, followed by the phone number. They may alternatively be written as +44 followed by the dialling code (excluding the 0 national prefix), followed by the phone number. You may not try to combine the national and international versions into one -- if you want to give both versions, give both versions. If you want, you can put brackets around a geographic dialling code -- but not around a non-geographic one that can never be omitted from the number. 7 digit phone numbers may be grouped 3-4 (with no punctuation). 8 digit phone numbers may be grouped 4-4. Nice and simple, isn't it? So why do so many people get it wrong?

Mostly because they don't know their dialling code. There are no such dialling codes as 0207 and 0208. London has a dialling code of 020 and eight digit phone numbers. All mobile phone numbers have five digit dialling codes (including the 0) and six digit number. The recently issued dialling codes starting 011 are all four digit codes and seven digit numbers.

So the following are correct:

020 7123 4567
07941 123456
+44 118 912 3456
National: 01244 123456
International: +44 1244 123456
(01244) 123456
0845 7484950

And the following are wrong:

0207 123 4567
0794 112 3456
+44 (0)118 912 3456
01189 123456
(0845) 7484950

Is that clear?

Comments

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

All thanks to the CCITT's 11-digit standard.

It is acceptable to write mobile numbers as a 5-digit number followed by two groups of three.

[alexmc.livejournal.com]

In my experience Americans don't know what the + means

[vampwillow]

er ... you are somewhat wrong too. I had to research this a couple of years ago:

* 3-4-4 structure:
02x xxxx xxxx
07x xxxx xxxx

* 4-3-4 structure
01x1 xxx xxxx
011x xxx xxxx
08xx xxx xxxx (though sometimes 08xxx xxxxxx)

*5-6 structure
01xxx xxxxxx

I have a PHP subroutine that formats a number if anyone wants a copy ...

[lostcarpark.livejournal.com]

The UK seems to randomly reorganise its phone numbering system every few years, just for the hell of it. I tend to find the mix of 3, 4 and 5-digit codes with random number of following digits a tad confusing, though thanks to sbisson for pointing out that they seem to add up to 11 digits.

There is also a convention I've seen quite a lot which goes +int(area)local. For example +44(118)9123456. I think it may have been introduced by Windows 95, so that's probably reason enough to shun it, but it has the advantage of being machine readable, so dialers know which bits to strip off for local calls.

It strikes me that the Americans have had a clear, simple system since at least the 70s, and possibly earlier. You used to be able to tell how important an area was by adding the digits of the area code together (with zero=10), so Washington had 212 while Alaska had 909. On radial dial phones (or pulse dial push phones) it meant that the shorter area codes dialed faster. Of course once tone dial came in it didn't make a difference.

In Ireland we seem to be gradually moving to a uniform 3+7 system, except in Dublin, which is 2+7. But we still have some old numbers which don't fit at all.

[redbird]

People don't know their dialing codes because they keep getting changed, in complicated ways. When North American telecom companies needed to change things around, they left some people's area codes alone and gave other people all-new ones, instead of (for example) rewriting London's 3 times in the past 3 decades, each time to a different length.

[daveon.livejournal.com]

I also disagree with not alloowing the (0) convention.

It is not necessarily clear to foreigners, especially USians what the zero is for. Having it in brackets helps there. Most phone diallers should now scrub the zero. If they can't, have the manufacturer call me and I'll arrange to have their dialler fixed.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

It's true; the vast majority do not. They simply don't dial internationlly often enough.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"The UK seems to randomly reorganise its phone numbering system every few years, just for the hell of it."

Italy is much worse.

B

[the-gardener.livejournal.com]

There are no such dialling codes as 0207 and 0208.

Quite agree. But the reason so many people get this wrong is undoubtedly because of the way the codes were introduced, fooling a significant fraction of people into thinking that they were keeping their old seven-digit numbers and having the area code altered, instead of having their numbers altered. And all the tea in China won't make them believe otherwise.

[sbisson.livejournal.com]

Well, go have a word with the Beast. It's still broken.

Unless of course Magneto fixes it...

[jamesb.livejournal.com]

I have little to add but

american public phones are shit

James

[jamesb.livejournal.com]

In your dreams Minionite

So the following are correct:

020 7123 4567
07941 123456
+44 118 912 3456
National: 01244 123456
International: +44 1244 123456
(01244) 123456

no they aint, I tried both and they dont work!

and the following are wrong:

(0845) 7484950

eh-eh again minionite, you is wrong
this goes through to national rail enquiries......

it works fine

No wonder your flicks minion

death to all minionites

[daveon.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... I thought it was fixed in Ozup...

Checks... Hmmm... Nope... Pretty sure it's fixed in Magneto. If not, I'll mention it. It's certainly on a bug list somewhere. I thought they were going to do it when they fixed the brackets bug in Stinger.

[lostcarpark.livejournal.com]

I don't see the point of the (0). If the reader understands international dialling codes, it's redundant, if they don't they'll still be confused.

[drplokta]

I'm going to need some more convincing that mobile phones have three digit dialling codes. I agree with all the rest of what you say.

[drplokta]

Everyone has had to screw up their phone numbering to accommodate mobile phones and the explosive growth in the number of lines, and different countries have chosen to screw it up in different ways. The US has held fast to the principle that no one's phone number will be changed, which has led their major municipalities to have an ugly mixture of overlapping dialling code areas, and means you often have to use the full ten+1 digit number to phone your next-door neightbour.

[vampwillow]

if you go back to "The Big Number" leaflets when they made the change on STD codes for mobiles from the 04xxx and 07xxxx you will see that they listed them as, eg,

0410 xxxxxx => 077 10xx xxxx

thus a 3-4-4 presentation, in line with the 02 (and 03) series' numbers. I believe it was also the case that, initially at least, 070, 071, 072 ... 079 could be linked aross to which network the number was to be on (but number portability then put paid to that idea!)

With non-geographic numbers it is all a matter of presentation anyway rather than a distinct 'exchange - subscriber' structure as all digits must be dialed, unlike geographic numbers where you can still dial within main (as opposed to sub-) exchange.

Now then ... where did I put that reverse search database ... ;-P

[vampwillow]

the 0207 xxx xxxx structure was promoted for the dual-running year+ as being the change from 0171 xxx xxxx and I blame OFCOM for not just doing the full switch-over in one go as too many people didn't really take note that the structure then changed.

Also not helped by telco suppliers still using the format, eg. Telewest, where they print my call log using 0207 xxx xxxx numbers not 020 7xxx xxxx. I have complained, but does it bother them? pah!

[daveon.livejournal.com]

The issue is generally for USians who don't understand international dialling nor internal non-US dialling. As they don't use a "0" ever, they often forget they need it. Having it there in brackets does help.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I continue in my conviction that attempting to use the telephone in non North-American countries is completely useless.

K.

[hjsb.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid, with my mobile phone number, I group the digits in the form that's easiest to remember, which happens to be:

077 xxx xxxxx

I therefore apologize in advance for annoying you ;-)

[dev-iant.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Even the usually intelligent people in my office still seem to think that the office number starts 0208.