Upon the miasma of midnight, a darkling spirit identified as Adrian
gently breathed:

Would that it were that simple. The implication is that one can dial
222 1234 within a notional STD code of "0207" AND expect to be
connected. I have heard that there are a handful of exchanges within
London were that does work. However the standard is now eight digit
local numbers within London. Dialing eight digits within STD code
"020" will always work.

Why do people want to only dial part of the number? Why not just dial
the whole thing and be sure it will work from anywhere in the UK,
including mobiles?

Back in the days of electro-mechanical exchange switching and physical
connections number-shortening may have made sense, but surely by now
it's an anachronism?

Or is there a good reason for still doing it - I suppose it makes it
easier for a person with limited hand mobility to dial, though it won't
help them use a mobile or if they're in a different area.

--
- DJ Pyromancer, Black Sheep, Leeds. http://www.sheepish.net
Hard Rock, Leeds http://www.hard-rock.org.uk
Broadband, Dialup, Domains = http://www.wytches.net = The UK's Pagan ISP!
http://www.inkubus-sukkubus.co.uk http://www.revival.stormshadow.com

Pyromancer wrote:
Upon the miasma of midnight, a darkling spirit identified as Adrian
gently breathed:

Would that it were that simple. The implication is that one can
dial 222 1234 within a notional STD code of "0207" AND expect to be
connected. I have heard that there are a handful of exchanges
within London were that does work. However the standard is now
eight digit local numbers within London. Dialing eight digits
within STD code "020" will always work.

Why do people want to only dial part of the number? Why not just
dial the whole thing and be sure it will work from anywhere in the
UK, including mobiles?

If I'm in London using a landline phone, why would I want to dial 11
digits when 8 would do?
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)

Upon the miasma of midnight, a darkling spirit identified as Richard J.
gently breathed:
Pyromancer wrote:
Upon the miasma of midnight, a darkling spirit identified as Adrian
gently breathed:

Would that it were that simple. The implication is that one can
dial 222 1234 within a notional STD code of "0207" AND expect to be
connected. I have heard that there are a handful of exchanges
within London were that does work. However the standard is now
eight digit local numbers within London. Dialing eight digits
within STD code "020" will always work.

Why do people want to only dial part of the number? Why not just
dial the whole thing and be sure it will work from anywhere in the
UK, including mobiles?

If I'm in London using a landline phone, why would I want to dial 11
digits when 8 would do?

Because pressing 3 buttons isn't exactly difficult, and it saves the
bother of having to work out each time you phone whether you can use the
shortened version or not? I suppose different people do it different
ways, I just find it easier to always dial full numbers, that way it
always just works.
--
- DJ Pyromancer, Black Sheep, Leeds. http://www.sheepish.net

Broadband, Dialup, Domains = http://www.wytches.net = The UK's Pagan ISP!
http://www.inkubus-sukkubus.co.uk http://www.revival.stormshadow.com

On Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:59:57 +0000, Pyromancer wrote

If I'm in London using a landline phone, why would I want to dial 11
digits when 8 would do?

Because pressing 3 buttons isn't exactly difficult, and it saves the
bother of having to work out each time you phone whether you can use the
shortened version or not? I suppose different people do it different
ways, I just find it easier to always dial full numbers, that way it
always just works.

To be honest, most numbers I dial are now programmed into the phone before I
dial them. It's comparatively rare that I dial a number from scratch. That
being the case, I always just dial the full number. It seems easier and less
susceptible to error

"Stimpy" wrote in message
. co.uk
: : On Sat, 17 Nov 2007 13:59:57 +0000, Pyromancer wrote
: : :
: : : : If I'm in London using a landline phone, why would
: : : : I want to dial 11 digits when 8 would do?
: : :
: : : Because pressing 3 buttons isn't exactly difficult,
: : : and it saves the bother of having to work out each
: : : time you phone whether you can use the shortened
: : : version or not? I suppose different people do it
: : : different ways, I just find it easier to always dial
: : : full numbers, that way it always just works.
: :
: : To be honest, most numbers I dial are now programmed
: : into the phone before I dial them. It's comparatively
: : rare that I dial a number from scratch. That being the
: : case, I always just dial the full number. It seems
: : easier and less susceptible to error

Most numbers I dial other than from memory are done from work, where we
have Featurenet. This gives us access to any company phone using the last
4 digits of the PSTN direct dial number, so for 0121-25x yyyy I just have
to dial yyyy. To dial a number on the PSTN is a simple case of prefixing
with a 9.

Ivor

In article , Pyromancer
writes
Why do people want to only dial part of the number?

Because it's six digits rather than 11.

Why not just dial
the whole thing and be sure it will work from anywhere in the UK,
including mobiles?

Because when I'm at home I don't need to ensure it works from anywhere
in the UK.

--
Clive D.W. Feather | Home:
Tel: +44 20 8495 6138 (work) | Web: http://www.davros.org
Fax: +44 870 051 9937 | Work:
Please reply to the Reply-To address, which is:

Pyromancer wrote:


Why do people want to only dial part of the number? Why not just dial
the whole thing and be sure it will work from anywhere in the UK,
including mobiles?

For the same reason that people don't prefix their numbers with +44 so
that they can be sure it will work from anywhere in the world.

In message
,
JohnW writes
For the same reason that people don't prefix their numbers with +44 so
that they can be sure it will work from anywhere in the world.
Funnily enough, I've got all my close family programmed in the memory of
my mobile using the +44 prefix so that it works both here and abroad and
my children's numbers are also in with the 01144 prefix to work from the
US.
--
Clive.

In article ,
JohnW wrote:


Pyromancer wrote:


Why do people want to only dial part of the number? Why not just dial
the whole thing and be sure it will work from anywhere in the UK,
including mobiles?

For the same reason that people don't prefix their numbers with +44 so
that they can be sure it will work from anywhere in the world.

Most of my saved mobile numbers are in +44 format, so that they worked
with foreign SMS gateways (as formerly required to access various
now-defunct SMS/Email servers).

In the early days of UK mobiles you could still just dial the subscriber
part of the number, provided that they were on your own mobile company's
primary range. E.g. 0836 was (IIRC) Vodafone, and any Vodafone mobile
user could omit the code if they were calling an 0836 code. I believe
this also worked for Cellnet on 0860 although I never had a Cellnet
mobile to try it.

When 0831 was added as a second Voda range, 0831 users could still have
codeless dialling to 0836 - but not to 0831. I might have 0831 and 0836
mixed up but the dialling certainly worked in this manner. I don't
know if this feature still survives for present day Voda subscribers
calling 07836.

Nick
--
Serendipity: http://www.leverton.org/blosxom (last update 3rd Nov 2007)

"The Internet, an ersatz counterfeit of real life"
-- Janet Street-Porter, BBC2, 19th March 1996

"Nick Leverton" wrote in message


[snip]

: : In the early days of UK mobiles you could still just
: : dial the subscriber part of the number, provided that
: : they were on your own mobile company's primary range.
: : E.g. 0836 was (IIRC) Vodafone, and any Vodafone mobile
: : user could omit the code if they were calling an 0836
: : code. I believe this also worked for Cellnet on 0860 although
: : I never had a Cellnet mobile to try it.
: :
: : When 0831 was added as a second Voda range, 0831 users
: : could still have codeless dialling to 0836 - but not to
: : 0831. I might have 0831 and 0836 mixed up but the
: : dialling certainly worked in this manner. I don't
: : know if this feature still survives for present day
: : Voda subscribers calling 07836.

No idea, but I can confirm it worked on the old 0836 range.

Ivor