Telephone code (United Kingdom)
| Area code codes |
|---|
| Telephone code : 44 |
| International dialing code : 00 |
The telephone area code numbers in the UK are from the Office of Communications (Ofcom) in the United Kingdom regulated. Integrated into the UK telephone network but not part of the UK are the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man .
Dialing a UK number from abroad is done as follows:
- International area code + 44 ( country code ) + area code (without a leading zero) + telephone number .
Dialing within the country can always be made as follows: area code + telephone number .
In the fixed network, a number in the same area code can be dialed without the area code.
Number ranges
| Number range | allocation |
|---|---|
| 01/02 | Geographical numbers (see next section) |
| 030x / 033x | Special numbers that are tariffed like geographic numbers |
| 034x / 037x | Special numbers that are tariffed like geographical numbers (previously 084 or 087) |
| 0500 | Free call services |
| 055 | Company access |
| 056 | Electronic communication services |
| 070 | Personal numbers |
| 071xx – 075xx / 07624 | Mobile numbers |
| 076xx | Paging services |
| 077xx-079xx | Mobile numbers |
| 0800/0808 | Free call services |
| 0820 | Special service: Internet for schools |
| 0842-0844 / 0845/0870 / 0871-0873 / 090x-091x | Value-added services |
| 098x | Sexual entertainment services |
| 116 | Free services |
| 118 | Information services |
| 124-140, 143-146, 148-149, 160-169, 181-189 | Access numbers for alternative network operators |
Area codes
List of area codes on the UK telephone network sorted by area code.
History of the UK primaries
Introduction of area codes
Self-dial telecommunications were introduced in Great Britain in December 1958, but only completed in 1979. So-called STD codes (Subscriber Trunk Dialing), which consisted of a zero and three digits, were used as local area codes. As a reminder, the first two digits corresponded to the first letters of the place. As in France, the numbers on the dial were marked with letters.
It was not possible to tell directly from the area code in which part of the country the dialed number was (0224 = AB4 = Aberdeen in Scotland, 0227 = CA7 = Canterbury in southern England).
The area code for London was 01, five other major cities ( Birmingham , Edinburgh , Glasgow , Liverpool and Manchester ) received the also shortened area codes 021 to 061.
The introduction of new local networks made it increasingly difficult to assign area codes based on the letters of the place name, and from 1966 letters were no longer used to identify telephone numbers.
1990: New area code for London
In May 1990 the previous area code 01 for London was changed. The inner city districts received the area code 071, the outer 081. This meant that number 01 was free.
1995: PhONEday
April 16, 1995 was declared by BT as PhONEday, on which each area code was preceded by the number 1 (English: One). London thus received the area codes 0171 and 0181. For some cities that suffered from lack of numbers, new area codes were created:
| city | Old area code | New area code |
|---|---|---|
| Leeds | 0532 (0LE2) | 0113 |
| Sheffield | 0742 (0SH2) | 0114 |
| Nottingham | 0602 (0NO2) | 0115 |
| Leicester | 0533 (0LE3) | 0116 |
| Bristol | 0272 (0BR2) | 0117 |
With this measure, the number ranges 02 to 09 became free and could be used for other services.
On PhONEday, the traffic elimination number for calls abroad was also changed from 010 to the internationally common number combination 00.
1996-1998: Reading
| city | Old area code | New area code |
|---|---|---|
| Reading | 01734 (01RE4) | 0118 |
The area code 0118 for Reading was not assigned on Phoneday, but only on April 8, 1996. The old area code 01734 (734 = RE4) was also valid until January 9, 1998.
2000: Big Number Change
On April 22, 2000, the day before Easter, another major change was made to the British telephone prefixes under the title Big Number Change , in which the number range 02 was also used for geographical area codes. This gave London again a uniform, outstanding area code.
| city | Old area code | New area code |
|---|---|---|
| London | 0171, 0181 | 020 |
| Southampton | 01703 (01SO3) | 023 |
| Portsmouth | 01705 (01PO5) | 023 |
| Coventry | 01203 (01CO3) | 024 |
| Northern Ireland | various | 028 |
| Cardiff | 01222 (01CA2) | 029 |
Eight-digit numbers were also introduced in all of these cities. The new area codes were available from June 1, 1999; parallel operation ended for the various local networks between August and October 2000. Ofcom expressly reserves the right to extend the area code 029, which was assigned to Cardiff, to all of Wales , analogous to Area code 028 for Northern Ireland.
On this day, all mobile numbers (cell phones and pagers) were moved to number 07. Previously, these numbers were in the area code 01, 03, 04 05, 08 and 09.
As a third measure, certain service numbers were moved to number ranges 08 and 09.
Telephone numbers in overseas territories
British overseas territories are not part of the United Kingdom and are not integrated into the UK telephone network. Connections from the UK to overseas territories are treated as international calls. The following international codes apply:
North American Numbering Plan
British overseas territories in North and Central America are incorporated into the North American Numbering Plan :
- Anguilla +1 264
- British Virgin Islands +1 284
- Cayman Islands +1 345
- Bermuda +1 441
- Montserrat +1 664
- Turks and Caicos Islands +1 649
Other
- British Indian Ocean Territory +246
- Ascension +247
- St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha +290
- Gibraltar +350
- Akrotiri and Dhekelia +357 (in the Cyprus number range )
- Falkland Islands +500
- Pitcairn Islands +64 (in New Zealand number space )
Data sources
- The National Telephone Numbering Plan . (PDF; 137 kB) Ofcom, July 18, 2012, 34 pages (English)
- National Code & Number Change Framework Document . ( MS Word ; 129 kB), Ofcom, on Big Number Change (English)
- Errata Ofcom, December 2011
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Local Number Allocation. (No longer available online.) Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority, Sep 9, 2009, archived from the original on July 22, 2011 ; accessed on December 28, 2010 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Events in Telecommunications History, 1958. BT, accessed March 10, 2009 .
- ^ Events in Telecommunications History, 1979. BT, accessed March 10, 2009 .
- ^ Numbering Bulletin 34. Ofcom, November 26, 1997, accessed March 10, 2009 .
- ↑ Numbering Bulletin 36. Ofcom, July 1998, accessed March 10, 2009 .
- ↑ Numbering Bulletin 35. Ofcom, March 1998, accessed March 10, 2009 .
