The UK telephone numbering plan, also known as the National Numbering Plan, is regulated by the Office of Communications(Ofcom), which replaced the Office of Telecommunications (Oftel) in 2003.
The telephone service in the United Kingdom was originally provided by local city councils, until in 1912 all except the telephone service of Kingston-upon-Hull, Yorkshire, were bought out by the Post Office. Post Office Telephones also operated telephone services in the Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey), and the Isle of Man, until 1969, when the Islands took over responsibility for their own postal and telephone services.
Post Office Telephones was reorganised in the early 1970s as British Telecommunications (British Telecom, or BT), and was one of the first nationalised industries to be privatised by the Conservative government in the mid-1980s. The Hull Telephone Department was itself sold by Hull City Council as Kingston Communications in the late 1990s.
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NB. This is all bollocks.
Area codes were first introduced in 1958, allowing a caller to call another telephone direct instead of via a manual telephone exchange, a process known as Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD), although the process was not completed until 1979. The four-digit codes were originally assigned based on the first three letters of the respective place's name and the corresponding numbers on a telephone keypad. For example Aylesbury was given the STD code 0296, where the letter A can be found on the number 2, the letter Y on the number 9 and the letter L on the number 6. However as more and more places were given STD codes this system became unworkable. The use of non-alphabetic exchange (area) codes was abandoned in the 1960s.
Until the late 1980s, calls to Dublin in the Republic of Ireland were made using the code 0001. This was discontinued, so that all calls to the Republic from the UK had to be dialled in the international format using the international access code (since 1995 00) and country code (353).
However, calls from Northern Ireland to the Republic continue to be charged at UK national or local rates.
The Director system was put in place in six cities, including London, where only a 2 or 3 digit code was used for the city, followed by a 3 digit code, represented by letters, to identify the local exchange. These were
01 London 021 Birmingham 031 Edinburgh 041 Glasgow 051 Liverpool 061 Manchester 091 Newcastle upon Tyne (introduced mid-1980s, also included Durham)
In May 1990, the growth in demand for phone numbers in London caused the London area,to be split:
071 inner London 081 outer London
On 'PhONE Day', April 16, 1995, the digit '1' was inserted into area codes, for example, central London's 071 became 0171. This was with a view to reorganising the numbering plan, so that the first two digits would indicate the type of service called:
01 Geographic area codes 02 New geographic area codes 03 Geographic area code expansion 04 Reserved for future use 05 Corporate numbering 06 Corporate numbering expansion 07 Mobile phones, pagers and personal numbering 08 Freephone and shared cost 09 Premium rate- similar to US 1 900 number range
The international access code also changed on 'PhONE Day', from 010 to 00. Five new area codes were introduced for cities that were running low on phone numbers - and a digit was prepended to each number.
Leeds 0113 2xx xxxx (was 0532 xxx xxx) Sheffield 0114 2xx xxxx (was 0742 xxx xxx) Nottingham 0115 9xx xxxx (was 0602 xxx xxx) Leicester 0116 2xx xxxx (was 0533 xxx xxx) Bristol 0117 9xx xxxx (was 0272 xxx xxx)
On April 22, 2000, the second phase of this came into operation. With 02* freed up by the previous reorganisation, it could be re-used again.
Inner London 020 7xxx xxxx (was 0171 xxxx xxx) Outer London 020 8xxx xxxx (was 0181 xxxx xxx)
Southampton 023 80xx xxxx (was 01703 xxx xxx) Portsmouth 023 92xx xxxx (was 01705 xxx xxx)
Coventry 024 76xx xxxx (was 01203 xxx xxx)
Cardiff 029 20xx xxxx (was 01222 xxx xxx)
Also, all Northern Ireland numbers were moved into the single area code 028.
The leading '0' of an area code is called the trunk code. All calls within the same area code and geographically adjacent codes are local calls, more distant calls are charged at the national rate. Following the changes in 1995, 2000 and 2001, the numbering range in use is as follows:
01382 Dundee 01482 Hull 01582 Luton
0121 Birmingham 0131 Edinburgh 0141 Glasgow 0151 Liverpool 0161 Manchester 0171 used for inner London until 2000 0181 used for outer London until 2000 0191 Newcastle upon Tyne
0113 Leeds 0114 Sheffield 0115 Nottingham 0116 Leicester 0117 Bristol 0118 Reading phased in between 1996 and 1998
020 London 023 South Hampshire (Southampton and Portsmouth) 024 Coventry 028 Northern Ireland (Belfast 028 90xx xxxx, Derry 028 71xx xxxx) 029 Cardiff (may become code for Wales)
055 xxxx xxxx Used by BT for its Broadband Voice service.
The '056' range is being proposed by Ofcom for Voice over Broadband (VoB) services, which will use Voice over Internet Protocol. However, many companies planning to provide these services in the UK have expressed misgivings about the use of non-geographic numbering. They argue that it may be more expensive to call, and inaccessible from outside the UK, or even from UK mobile networks. [1] (http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/past/vob/?a=87101)
The 0500 range was previously used for some freephone services, of which some remain,
e.g., 0500 909693 the phone-in number for BBC Radio Five Live.
070xx Personal Numbering 076xx Pagers 077xx Mobile Phones (former 03xx and 04xx - Vodafone and Cellnet) 078xx Mobile Phones (former 05xx, 06xx and 08xx - Vodafone and Cellnet) 079xx Mobile phones (former 09xx - mostly Orange)
0800 xxx xxxx or 0800 xxx xxx Free Phone 0845 xxx xxxx Local Rate 0870 xxx xxxx National Rate 0844 xxx xxxx Fixed Special Local Rate 0871 xxx xxxx Fixed Special National Rate
The Crown Dependencies of Jersey Guernsey, and the Isle of Man continue to participate in the UK's numbering plan, using the following numbering ranges:
01481 Fixed Line 07781 Mobile Phones and Pagers
01534 Fixed Line 07797 Mobile Phones and Pagers
01624 Fixed Line 07624 Mobile Phones and Pagers
On the Isle of Man, both fixed and mobile phone numbers can be dialled locally in the six-digit format.
Some UK telephone companies may charge more than their normal geographic National rate for calls to fixed line phones in these Crown Dependencies
Ofcom has also reserved certain number ranges for use in television dramas and films, so as to avoid the risk of people having their telephone numbers displayed, and receiving unwanted calls. This is similar to the use of fictitious telephone numbers in the United States with the digits '555'. These are known as 'drama numbers', and either use unused number ranges or area codes that have been withdrawn from use. For example, the area code 01632 is not in use, although 0632 was originally used for Newcastle upon Tyne until the late 1980s.
The few telephone numbers which are less than eleven digits long are mostly in the 0845 range, e.g. 0800 1111 the national ChildLine helpline, and 0845 4647 for NHS Direct medical advice. There are also codes for use with Caller ID, known in the UK as 'Caller Display':
141 Number Withhold 1470 Number Release (when permanently withheld) 1471 Call Return (caller may press '3' to return call on hearing number)
The national emergency services call number is 999, although the international number 112 is also recognised. This can be used to contact the Police, Fire Service, Ambulance Service, Mountain Rescue, Coastguard or Cave Rescue.
The operator is obtained via 100, while directory enquiries, formerly 192 is now provided by different companies in the 118xxx range e.g. 118500, 11 88 88.
Most telephone companies offer a speaking clock service on 123.