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The U.K's "Big Number" Telephone Changes |
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The "Big Number" is the name given to the update of dialing codes in the U.K. for Cardiff, Coventry, London, Northern Ireland, Portsmouth and Southampton, culminating in a large switch on Saturday, April 22, 2000. This project has included the addition of new area/city codes for many parts of the U.K., coupled with a move to eight-digit local numbers in London. It also affects many mobile phone numbers. Any mobile phone having a number that does not start with 07 will have the prefix changed so that it does start with 07. For Outlook users, the three key issues related to the Big Number are updating contacts, automatic formatting of numbers typed into a Contact item and correct dialing with Windows dialing properties. For calls from outside the U.K., the old area codes will work until August-October 2000, depending on the particular area. Old numbers for some mobile phones and pagers will work until April 2001. Updating Contacts | Automatic Formatting | Dialing with Windows Dialing Properties | Notes | More Information |
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Updating Contacts |
Many tools -- free and commercial -- are available to update your Outlook contacts to the new area/city codes in the U.K. See our Contacts Tools page. | ||
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Automatic Formatting |
The automatic formatting feature largely depends on fixed length local numbers within a country. However, the U.K. has no fixed length for any part of the phone number! City/area codes can have 2, 3 or 4 digits, while local numbers can have 5, 6, 7 or 8 digits. Since the U.K. now has both seven- and eight-digit numbers, you may get unexpected results if you just type in a number -- with no punctuation -- and expect Outlook to format it properly. The MSKB article OL2000: New 020 London Area Code Interpreted as Country Code for Egypt describes one example. Though that article says Office 2000 Service Release 1 resolves the problem, the real resolution -- which works for any version of Outlook -- is to enter telephone numbers in full "international" or "canonical" format:
where
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Dialing with Windows Dialing Properties |
The canonical format given above is the one sure way to have unambiguous numbers and to make
use of Windows dialing properties to dial the correct access codes
for local, long distance and international calls. No matter where
you might travel to -- a hotel in your home town, a different city
or another country -- you can create a new Windows dialing location
for that destination and, as long as the numbers in Outlook are in
canonical format, Windows will dial them correctly.
If you do not put the numbers in canonical format, Windows dialing properties do not apply. This means that you would need to explicitly enter the number in Outlook exactly as you want it dialed -- and change that number if you travel to another location that might have a 9 to get an outside line or a different long-distance access code. Here are the steps to follow to set up Windows dialing properties to handle U.K. numbers accurately (the exact names of the settings may vary with your version of Windows):
Once you have set up a dialing location like this, you can use the canonical or international format to enter U.K. numbers in Outlook -- without the leading zero dialing code for inter-U.K. calls -- and Windows will always dial them correctly, no matter where you might travel. |
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Notes |
Given that the canonical format for a U.K. phone number looks like
this:
why do many U.K. companies and individuals put phone numbers on their web pages and letterhead that look like this:
Similarly, freephone (toll-free) numbers in the U.K. are almost always listed like this (a number for help with The Big Number, by the way):
Indeed, the official explanations of The Big Number (see More Information below) include the leading zero as part of the new area codes. The extra zero -- (0) in the first example, and the leading 0 in 0800 in the second example -- reflects the way people who live in the U.K. actually think about dialing numbers. To dial a long-distance number, they dial a 0 first. The same applies to freephone/toll-free and mobile numbers. Because no emphasis was ever placed on the leading 0 being a dialing code, it has generally come to be considered part of the city code. So it would not be unusual for someone living in London to tell a friend visiting from New York that their number is 020 8111-1111, but add, "You should leave off the zero when you get home to New York and need to dial me from the States." So what would happen if you entered a number like this in Outlook:
using the commonly accepted 020 area code for London? If you had entered 020 as your local area code in the Windows dialing properties location, then number would be dialed correctly as 8111-1111. However, if you went somewhere else in the U.K and used a Windows dialing properties location with a different area code, Outlook would dial the number as
adding the 0 dialing prefix for long-distance numbers within the U.K. That call would not go through because of the extra zero. From outside the U.K, the number would be dialed as
Again, that means the call would not go through, since for international calls, then number should be dialed as
Mobile numbers are a little different. Within the U.K., you always include the leading 0 then the area code for a mobile number. Therefore, you probably would not want to put the mobile's area code in your Windows dialing properties. Instead, use your local landline area code. |
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More Information |
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Updated Feb 15 2009
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