Ref: 78/00
Date: 12 October 2000

London's old 0171 and 0181 dialling codes will be switched off in the early hours of this Saturday, 14 October, Oftel today reminded the public.

After this date any calls made into London that use the old codes will not be connected and callers will get a recorded message telling them to redial using the new 020 code and the new eight-digit local number.

People are urged to check that they have changed any London numbers stored in equipment such as mobile and fixed line phones, fax machines and computers as these will no longer be connected after Saturday.

David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications, said today:

"The safety net that meant calls into London using the old 0171 and 0181 codes were still connected is switched off on Saturday.

"People must check that they have changed old numbers stored in phones, faxes and computers because after Saturday these calls will fail and will be directed to a recorded announcement instead."

David Edmonds said that London is the last area where old codes will be switched off following the code changes in April. Cardiff, Coventry, Portsmouth and Southampton and Northern Ireland have all had their old codes switched off.

"The changes were necessary in order to meet the massive growth in demand for telephones, faxes and Internet access.

"The new numbering scheme creates huge capacity and a clear structure for geographic, mobile, special and premium rate numbers. It is a numbering scheme that will meet the UK’s ever growing telephony needs for many years to come."

Notes to editors

1. The changes are part of Oftel’s reorganisation of the UK’s numbering system that will create a reserve of nine billion phone numbers and give an indication of the type of service that is being called and likely charge.

2. The new numbering system is:
00 International Codes
02 New Area Codes
03 Reserved for Area Codes
04 Reserved for Future Use
05 Reserved for Future Use
06 Reserved for Future Use
07 Mobile, Pagers & Personal Numbers
08 Freephone & Special Rate Numbers
09 Premium Rate Services & Multimedia

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