Clive D. W. Feather wrote:

In article , Aidan Stanger
writes
Over here they give businesses the option of buying shorter numbers.
Don't they do that at all where you are?

No.

Any idea why not?

and, therefore, more expensive. You have to plan for
the longest number.
Making some numbers longer shouldn't be any more expensive than making
all numbers longer.

The equipment needs to know *which* numbers have each length, so it
knows when to stop collecting digits and start connecting the call. It's
better if large blocks (e.g. 01234 xxxxxx) are all the same length, and
worst when adjacent blocks differ (e.g. 01234 5678x and 01234 5679xx).

The more variation, the bigger the internal tables need to be.

Yes, it would be silly to not put the longer numbers in large blocks.
UIVMM numbers no longer have to be assigned by physical location, so
that shouldn't be a problem.