On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 19:00:43 +0000 (UTC), "Terry Harper"
wrote:
"Ian Jelf" wrote in message
...

The only country where I've ever noticed major differences in number
length is Germany, where they can be very variable, even on the same
exchange.

Is this because they show direct dialling inward with the PBAX as, say,
06857-2456-0 and the extensions as 06857-2456-154?

Yes, that's part of it, but "normal" single-line numbers can have
varying lengths - perhaps longer for newer numbers - and some (mainly
business) users have 4 or 5-digit numbers even in a large city that
otherwise has up to 8-digits. As an example, I looked for hotels in
Frankfurt on www.gelbeseiten.de and found 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and even 10
digits in the local number, though that last one may have been a DDI
as Terry says, without the usual hyphen.

Richard.