No. 29.... November 1996
Issued by the Oftel Numbering Unit
50 Ludgate Hill, London, EC4M 7JJ
Enquiries - Telephone: 0171 634 8758; Fax: 0171 634 8943
Numbering Bulletins are published monthly by the Oftel Numbering Unit. Bulletins are available on Oftel's Internet pages (http://www.open.gov.uk/oftel//). The information may also be found on Warwick University pages: http://www.warwick.ac.uk/search/Phones/Oftel_cl.html and http://www.warwick.ac.uk/cgi-bin-Phones/nng
Oftel is currently considering the responses to the consultation document with the Numbering Advisory Group. The Statement setting out Oftel's conclusions will be now published at the end of January, allowing time for the simultaneous publication of revised Numbering Conventions. This will be the start of the formal 28 day consultation with the Telecommunications Numbering and Addressing Body required by operators' licences and will take forward the policy issues covered in the August document.
The European Commission's Green Paper on Numbering was published in November. The Paper covers three main subject areas: carrier selection, number portability and the integration of European Numbering Schemes.
The Commission proposes the introduction of carrier selection on a phased basis: From 1 January 1998: carrier selection, allowing users to select the carrier of their choice on a simple non-discriminatory call-by-call basis (this is the equivalent of what we call "easy access"). From 1 January 2000: as above, plus the possibility of an override on a call-by-call basis (this is a form of "equal access").
The Green Paper proposes that all Member States should ensure the introduction of geographic, mobile and non-geographic number portability by the year 2000. The Commission seeks comments on timing, the impact on the market, allocation of costs and long term technical approaches.
The Commission proposes the introduction of European Telephony Numbering Space for services such as pan-European Freephone, premium-rate and personal numbering from 1 January 1998. Other proposals are for changes from 1 January 2000 to European Country Codes (to be prefixed by 3 - the UK becoming 344, France 333) and for integration of national schemes which in particular would require wide scale changes to access codes in the UK.
The closing date for the consultation is 21 February 1997. Oftel will be preparing a UK response with DTI; an industry consultation meeting will be held at Oftel on 27 January.
Copies of the document are available from the EC Information Centre at 8 Storey's gate, Westminster, London, and from the Commission's Internet pages at the following URL: HTTP://europa.eu.int/
In order that sufficient numbering capacity continues to be available in the "Five Cities" (Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Bristol), the Numbering Advisory Group have agreed that the next 'C' digit to be used in each city should be identified now so that the capacity may be used when demand requires it.
The next 'C' digits to be opened in each of the five cities are therefore as follows:
Leeds 113 3XX XXXX Leicester 116 3XX XXXX Sheffield 114 3XX XXXX Bristol 117 3XX XXXX Nottingham 115 8XX XXXX
This capacity will be available for allocations to be brought into service after 17 April 1997 (two years after PhONEday). It is not anticipated that it will be needed in the majority of locations until well after that date.
Two new members of the Numbering Team: Duncan O'Neill joins us from the Centre for Regulated Industries as Numbering Policy Adviser and Jonathan Dawson comes from Oftel's Licence Enforcement and Fair Trading Branch to work on numbering and database administration.
Changes made to the Specified Numbering Scheme during November 1996 are summarised below:
Area Numbering Range Allocations 39 Reservations 0 Other Changes 1321 Mobiles Numbering Range Allocations 0 Reservations 0 Other Changes 0 Personal Numbering Range Allocations 0 Reservations 0 Other Changes 0 Special Services Numbering Range Allocations 19 Reservations 0 Other Changes 0 Access Codes Allocations 4 Reservations 0 Other Changes 2 Total Number of Changes 1385