National dialling

[David H]

There is now a new category of local codes starting with 0 and 1 called 'national dialling'. All I know is they are only used for outgoing data calls, which is why they can use numbers starting with 1 and 0 which would actually connect you to operators and other exchanges should you actually dial the numbers advertised.

Of course I know we have at least one telecoms expert so I should get an answer, and I have actually contacted a few of the operators who own some of these exchanges, and even they admitted they had no idea what they were. Muppets...

[David H]

sorry, here's a link http://www.ukphoneinfo.com/cgi-bin-Phones/nng?GNG=0201 so you can see them in action.

[Gandy]

Is this an American thing?

[David H]

No way! If you follow the link it's a system introduced a few years ago and applies to most UK exchanges.

In practice, each exchange now has the potential for numbers starting with a one and a zero, despite the fact that anyone calling them would actually get connected to a different number as these prefixes have already been allocated to operators (ones) and national/international exchanges (zero). I understand no one actually calls these numbers, as they are used, like my internet line here, for outgoing data calls only, but would liketo know why they've been labelled 'national dialling'. I hope that's a bit clearer now as I sort of relied on the link to demonstrate what I meant...