NUMBERING BULLETIN 35

March 1998

 
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NUMBERING BULLETIN and FLOPPY DISK DISTRIBUTION

Oftel will in future only publish the detail of the Scheme on the Web site. This means that change details, hitherto shown traditionally at Annex 1 will not be included in subsequent Numbering Bulletins. Most professional users are already downloading the codelist.zip file from the Internet, and in view of the large numbers of changes, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find detail in printed pages. In addition, the previous practice of sending out codelist.zip on a floppy disk is now discontinued as we provide more up to date information on a monthly basis through the Web site. Numbering Bulletins will continue to be distributed in hard copy to the mailing list; this service is currently under review.

URGENT- 01 MISDIALLING

As notified in Numbering Bulletin 34, operators and maintainers/ owners of customer premises equipment (CPE) are again reminded that the code 0870 is used for national rate numbers. Arrangements should be made to ensure that telecoms networks correctly route calls made to such numbers and that any PhONEday messages instructing callers to "insert a 1" before 0870 numbers are removed. Similarly, CPE should not cause 0870 dialled calls to enter the public telecoms networks as 01870 either by announcement or automatically. Failure in this regard will either cause the call to fail or for it to be mis-routed to the corresponding geographic number.

DEVELOPMENTS IN NUMBERING ADMINISTRATION

Alan Pridmore leaves the position of head of the Numbering Unit and is now responsible for a project which studies ways in which number charging can be introduced to promote the optimal use of the Numbering Scheme. The project, announced in Oftel's Management Plan for 1998/9, will also examine ways of developing greater private sector involvement in the administration of the Scheme, leaving Oftel to concentrate on core policy work. Alan thanks those who have supported the work of the Numbering Unit over the last three years.

Ray Thornton took over responsibility for the Numbering Unit in mid January. He reports directly to Christine Farnish, Acting Deputy Director General. Ray was previously at the London Stock Exchange, where he headed up a Compliance team.

NUMBER PORTABILITY

The Numbering Unit is presently considering EU requirements in relation to number portability. These requirements may result in significant changes to the basic portability framework currently in operation in the UK. The provision of portability is being addressed in two EU Directives, the AVTD (Amending Voice Telephony Directive) and the Numbering Directive (which will amend articles in the existing Interconnection Directive). Oftel is keen to ensure that operators are able to meet these requirements and will shortly be setting out proposals explaining how it intends to implement the Directives.

01 AREA NUMBERING RANGE

Reading Code Change

Operators, users and maintainers are reminded that parallel running of the old and new numbers ceased on Friday 9th January 1998. From this date, only the 0118 code and 7-digit local numbers will work. Oftel is reviewing the time scale for retaining announcements, with a view to opening up the range 0118 37X later in 1998.

Conversion Of BT 5-Digit Numbers

Oftel Numbering Conventions B3.6 require remaining 5-digit local numbers to be removed when networks are modernised or by April 2005 whichever is the earlier. BT has announced the end of its TXE4 update programme, with the last unit being replaced in March 1998, at which point the opportunity is being taken to upgrade the 5-digit numbers to 6-digit. At present, the only further change to 6-digit numbering planned is the Carlisle range, 01228 7X scheduled for early 1999. All Northern Ireland 5-digit ranges move to 8-digit behind the code 028 in Easter 2000.

Coventry Code 024 In 2000

The Director General has announced that Coventry has been added to the list of cities (Numbering Bulletin 30) which will be changed at Easter 2000. The code 01203 will be replaced by the code 024. Existing Coventry 6-digit numbers will be prefixed by 76.

 
Important Dates For 02x Change

Operators, User Groups and Maintainers should note the following milestones:-

• Start of Parallel Running of 02X numbers, Summer 1999, date to be announced
• Code Change, 22 April 2000
• End of Parallel running of 02 numbers, to be announced.

Further implementation detail on the programme will be publicised through the National Code & Number Change Programme Office. Operators who are not yet represented on the Steering Group announced in Numbering Bulletin 33 should contact the National Code & Number Change Programme Office, Logica UK Limited, 75 Hampstead Road, London NW1 2PL. Tel: (171) 446 1602 fax: (171) 344 3621).

  Issue Of 02x Capacity

 
Northern Ireland Prefixes For 028 Code

These were announced on 28 January 1998. The listing can be downloaded in electronic form by clicking here:-  and are recorded at Annex 3.

Use of 07 range

The structure of the 07 range is described in the Numbering Conventions (April 1997) and is reproduced below.
 

Paging And Mobile Migration

Paging Migration

A summary of the migration path for existing paging codes is shown below. The full list of codes is shown in Annex 2.

Paging Substructure

The 076 paging substructure is shown below. Note that the decision on 0765 and 0767 will not prevent Oftel allocating numbers to operators for "Above National Rate" services, since these can be issued from the 0766 range.

Mobile Migration

A summary of the migration path for existing mobile codes is shown below. The full list of codes is shown in Annex 2.

08 Special Services Range - 0845 1888 for NHS Direct

The National Health Service is to commence trials in March 1998 of an NHS helpline NHS Direct in certain areas of the country. Calls to this helpline will be charged at local rate. At its meeting in February, the Numbering Advisory Group (NAG) supported the issue of a short number in the 0845 local rate range for this purpose. Accordingly, 0845 188 has been designated a short 7-digit number range and the block allocated to BT with the condition that only the number 0845 1888 (for NHS Direct) should be used.

090 PREMIUM RATE SERVICES SUB-STRUCTURE

Following the announcement of the 090 sub-structure for Premium Rate Services (PRS) in Numbering Bulletin 33, it has emerged that, for migration of existing numbers into the 090 range, the separation of services into live and non-live is not practical in some telecommunications networks.

Accordingly, Oftel drew up a revised 090 sub-structure which took account of this network limitation and avoided the possibility of 090 blocks clashing with those allocated in corresponding 0190X codes. As the revised sub-structure could not separate live and non-live services, a total maximum call cost of £5 for the codes 0900 and 0901 was put forward in order to provide a degree of consumer protection against high call costs for calls made to these types of PRS. This revised 090 sub-structure is recorded below:

  A short consultation on the revised sub-structure to verify the practicality of implementation in telecommunications networks was undertaken with operators currently having premium rate number allocations and bodies representing PRS service providers. This revealed no apparent technical difficulties in network implementation although concerns were expressed by operators and the PRS industry over the total call cost cap in the 0900 and 0901 codes. The sub-structure was considered by the Numbering Advisory Group at its February 1998 meeting and given general support, especially from those representing users.

Oftel has therefore decided to proceed with the implementation of the above revised sub-structure and will make allocations of new PRS capacity to operators on this basis. Migration arrangements from existing, non-conforming, ranges to the new sub-structure will be agreed with the operators concerned.

In its January 1997 Statement, Oftel announced that it would seek to allocate numbers from parts of the Numbering Scheme directly to Service Providers. Additionally Oftel stated that it would move to a situation where it is not necessary to have an individual licence in order to obtain numbering capacity, but where numbers can be allocated under a class licence or by some other means.

The necessary modifications have now been made to the Telecommunications Service Licence (TSL) class licence and Standard International Simple Voice Resale (ISVR) licence to allow this to happen. The next step is to modify the Numbering Conventions to take account of these changes. A consultation period on the changes began on 13 February 1998 and will last for 28 days.

Oftel has received Returns from just over 50% of Operators for the 1997 Audit, providing utilisation information on allocated capacity and forecasts of demand. These responses are currently being reviewed for completeness and the results will be fed into the Review's analysis of demand, as well as assisting normal allocation work. Responses are still awaited from:

ABS Telecom Plc
ACC Long Distance (UK) Ltd
American Telemedia Limited
Atlas International Services Ltd
Esprit Telecom Ltd
FronTel Communications
Global One
Golden Pages Ltd
Interoute Telecommunications Plc
Mercury Personal Communications Ltd
MTC Telemanagement Corporation
On Line Telecom Ltd
RSL Com Europe Ltd
TeleBermuda International (UK) Ltd
Telstra (UK) Ltd
Viatel UK Ltd
World Telecommunications Corp. Ltd
Worldcall PLC
WORLDxCHANGE Comms. Ltd
Xero One Ltd

These responses are being pursued. In the absence of Audit Returns, Oftel will not make further allocations to these operators.

Changes to the Scheme in the period November 1997 to February 1998 are summarised below and allocations and reservations made during the same period are shown in Annex 1. Full details of the Scheme are shown on Oftel's Internet pages.

 
 
Total Number of Changes 2289
 

Allocations and Reservations made in the Area Numbering Range in the period November 1997 to February 1998
 

a) Codes

None
 
 

 
Paging Migration

  Mobile Migration

 Northern Ireland Prefixes for the 028 Code

  
Telephone Code 028 for Northern Ireland, Easter 2000
Examples of old and new numbers