On Mon, 3 Jan 2005 16:06:21 +0000, Mrs Redboots
wrote:

Clive D. W. Feather wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 3 Jan 2005:

No such plans (I really can't see London needing more than 80 million
phone *numbers*).

I can - although now we have broadband, the idea of two lines per
household, one for the computer and one for the phone, isn't going to
happen - although what about one's television, which increasingly needs
to use the phone lines to pay for download movies & so on?


The big expansion in the number space needed for *geographical*
numbers during the 1980s and 1990s was exacerbated partly by the
growth of DDI (direct dialling in, where individual staff in an
organisation have their own numbers, rather than callers needing to
phone a switchboard and be routed to an extension), partly by the
growth of fax. The demand for DDI numbers must surely be close to
saturation by now, barring a big increase in the number of office
workers with desks in the 020 region, which seems unlikely. Fax is
surely past its peak.

Using a second line for an Internet connection, or using ISDN or Home
Highway which would imply two or more numbers, would have accounted
for a demand for numbers in the late 1990s, but broadband is gradually
superseding these.

I used to have BT Highway, which needed three numbers. Now with
broadband I could revert to a single number, though in fact I've
retained one of the other BT Highway lines as a call-sign number
(rings the same line with a different ringing cadence) to use as a fax
number.

In the immediate future, I would expect the greatest growth in numbers
to be non-geographic - not just mobiles but also Internet phones.

The thing is, it's as well to have that capacity in reserve - after all,
40 years ago, who could have guessed where telecomms would be today.

Very true...

Martin