All day long the lazy journalists of the UK media have been giving out the
emergency telephone number for the SE Asia earthquake and subsequent tidal
waves in the format:

'0207 008 0000'

BBC News 24, Sky News, Teletext have been displaying and saying it wrongly
all day
ITN News 24 format it correctly on-screen but the presenters have been
saying "0207 008 000" all day long....

Is Oftel/Ofcom to blame for this mass stupidity/ignorance (because of the
way the renumbering was done a few years back) or are people in this country
in general just thick?

Soon we can expect to see/hear '0203 xxx xxxx'

Is this the only country in the world that can't cope with simple number
changes?

Andy

In message , A H writes
All day long the lazy journalists of the UK media have been giving out
the emergency telephone number for the SE Asia earthquake and
subsequent tidal waves in the format:

'0207 008 0000'

BBC News 24, Sky News, Teletext have been displaying and saying it
wrongly all day ITN News 24 format it correctly on-screen but the
presenters have been saying "0207 008 000" all day long....

Is Oftel/Ofcom to blame for this mass stupidity/ignorance (because of
the way the renumbering was done a few years back) or are people in
this country in general just thick?
Do you not have a family and home to go to?
--
Clive.

A H wrote:
All day long the lazy journalists of the UK media have been giving
out the emergency telephone number for the SE Asia earthquake and
subsequent tidal waves in the format:

'0207 008 0000'

BBC News 24, Sky News, Teletext have been displaying and saying it
wrongly all day
ITN News 24 format it correctly on-screen but the presenters have
been saying "0207 008 000" all day long....

Is Oftel/Ofcom to blame for this mass stupidity/ignorance (because
of the way the renumbering was done a few years back) or are people
in this country in general just thick?

Soon we can expect to see/hear '0203 xxx xxxx'

Is this the only country in the world that can't cope with simple
number changes?

It wasn't a simple change, as a digit which was part of the exchange
code was moved into the subscriber's number. It was actually the 4th
number change that London has endured. The original exchange in
Chiswick, for example, CHI (=244) has become in succession 01-994, 081
994, 0181 994, and now 020 8994. The change to a 4-digit exchange code
within London was not publicised clearly enough, and the increasing use
of mobile phones means that in many cases the whole 11 digits are needed
anyway, so the exact position of the spaces becomes irrelevant, as it
also is for mobile phone numbers.

I was pleased to hear Charlotte Green on BBC Radio 4 this evening quote
the number correctly, as I drove back to London (the latter phrase being
a desperate attempt to make this thread on-topic).
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

In article , A H
wrote:
All day long the lazy journalists of the UK media have been giving out the
emergency telephone number for the SE Asia earthquake and subsequent tidal
waves in the format:

'0207 008 0000'

BBC News 24, Sky News, Teletext have been displaying and saying it wrongly
all day
ITN News 24 format it correctly on-screen but the presenters have been
saying "0207 008 000" all day long....

Is Oftel/Ofcom to blame for this mass stupidity/ignorance (because of the
way the renumbering was done a few years back) or are people in this country
in general just thick?

Soon we can expect to see/hear '0203 xxx xxxx'

Is this the only country in the world that can't cope with simple number
changes?

Andy

I think rhythm is important here, many people break phone Nos into triplets,
but it's into duplets on the continent.

Anyway tonight on Radio 4 tonight at 8 00 there is a programme entitled "The
secret life of phone numbers". There MIGHT be some answers.

Michael Bell

--

"A H" wrote in message
...

All day long the lazy journalists of the UK media have been giving out the
emergency telephone number for the SE Asia earthquake and subsequent tidal
waves in the format:

'0207 008 0000'

1. I don't think it really matters any more. I'm sick of reading out numbers
to people in the correct way - 020 7xxx xxxx - only to have them not
understand, until I repeat it as 0207 xxx xxxx . I've given up - if you
can't beat 'em, join 'em.

2. I think the people, frantic with worry for the safety of their loved
ones, who call the emergency line have a little more to be concerned about
than how the number is formatted!

Ian

On Sun, 26 Dec 2004 19:07:52 -0000, "A H"
wrote:

All day long the lazy journalists of the UK media have been giving out the
emergency telephone number for the SE Asia earthquake and subsequent tidal
waves in the format:

'0207 008 0000'

Soon we can expect to see/hear '0203 xxx xxxx'

Is this the only country in the world that can't cope with simple number
changes?


At the risk of going even further off topic, the answer is "no".
It's the same in Spain.

My phone number was originally Benitachell xx xx. Then it was
changed to 649 xx xx. Finally, it was given the "All Spain" number
of 96 649 xx xx. This makes sense - 96 means Alicante Province, 649
is my local exchange and xx xx my personal number. All Spain has
(or had) a nicely logical sequence - province, exchange, 4 figure
number.

Now we're officially being told to quote our numbers as three groups
of three - 966 49x xxx so that more numbers can be allocated.

Nobody is. Telefonica won't win.

Bill, whose old UK number will forever be FOOts Cray xxxx, or maybe
0208 300 xxxx but never 020 8300 xxxx
--
Bill Hayles

http://billnot.com

"Ian F." wrote in message
...

1. I'm sick of reading out numbers to people in the
correct way - 020 7xxx xxxx - only to have them not
understand, until I repeat it as 0207 xxx xxxx .
I've given up - if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

I have never had a single problem getting anyone to understand the correct
new format, even if they won't use it themselves.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

"Michael Bell" wrote in message
...
In article , A H
wrote:

I think rhythm is important here, many people break phone Nos into
triplets,
but it's into duplets on the continent.

Sadly on the continent they also say the pairs of digits as if they were a
number between 10 and 99. This is cumbersome in French (98 becomes
"quatre-vignts dix-huit", whereas "neuf huit" would be far simpler) and
downright ludicrous in German where the tens and units are reversed,
four-and-twenty-blackbirds style (98 becomes acht-und-neunzig). I watched
someone in Germany taking down a phone number. His pen took two steps
forwards and one step back for each pair of numbers: hilariously
inefficient!

I tend to break numbers into triplets, but if I knew the number before BT
added extra digits I break it at that point without even thinking about it:
my parents' number used to be 3698 and then was lengthened to 613698:
subconsciously I break this into 61 and 3698 rather than 613 698 ;-)

Michael Bell wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 27 Dec 2004:

I think rhythm is important here, many people break phone Nos into triplets,
but it's into duplets on the continent.

Really, of course, we should quote London numbers in the same way that
we quote every other number (mobiles included) - as a group of 5
followed by a group of 6. But it's horrendously difficult - I can't do
it in my head with my own phone number, never mind anybody else's!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 18 December 2004

Mrs Redboots wrote:
Michael Bell wrote to uk.transport.london on Mon, 27 Dec 2004:

I think rhythm is important here, many people break phone Nos into
triplets, but it's into duplets on the continent.

Really, of course, we should quote London numbers in the same way
that we quote every other number (mobiles included) - as a group of
5 followed by a group of 6.

We don't quote all other numbers as 5+6. Manchester, for example, has
had 3-digit exchange numbers for years (originally with letters like
London), so that CENtral 1234 became 061-236 1234, and is now 0161 236
1234. The same is true of Liverpool, Birmingham, Glasgow, etc.

Reading (0118), Coventry (024) and several others have had new exchange
codes, and should be and often are quoted correctly with their 3 or
4-digit area code. (Though 024 is actually shared with other areas!)

Also, I certainly don't adhere to any particular grouping of mobile
numbers, preferring to group the digits in the most memorable way. Do
any of the mobile phone companies or any other relevant body recommend a
particular format for mobile numbers?

--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)