House of Commons - Trade and Industry

Select Committee on Trade and Industry Fifth Report

II THE NATIONAL NUMBERING SCHEME

3. The basis of today's telephone numbering scheme was designed by the Post Office in the 1950s to accommodate the introduction of the automated system of Subscriber Trunk Dialling.[4] The scheme divided the UK into 638 geographic areas, each with its own code. With the exception of major cities, such as London, these areas were all of similar size, so that rural and urban areas were each allocated about 800,000 usable numbers.[5] Most, but not all, numbers followed a nine-digit plan, with a two or three digit area code.[6] By the late 1980s this scheme was under strain from three separate developments:[7]

following the privatisation of BT, which had taken over responsibility for numbering from the Post Office, numbers were needed for allocation to competing operators, primarily Mercury (now Cable &Wireless)
growth in the demand for numbers in existing area codes was leading to number exhaustion: London's 01 code was divided in 1990 into 071 and 081 as a result
spare area codes were being claimed for new, non-geographic services, including mobile telephony, freephone services and premium rate services

4. Responding to these pressures, Oftel launched a survey of numbering capacity in the late 1980s which resulted in the then Director General announcing, in December 1991, the need to move to a ten-digit numbering scheme.[8] This move was initiated by the phONEday change in 1995, which involved the insertion of a "1" before each geographic number. Oftel took over responsibility for the allocation of numbers to telephone operators from BT in 1994.[9] It set out the National Numbering Scheme (NNS), enforceable by a condition in operators' licences, which allocated the 01 and 02 number ranges to geographic codes, the 04 range to mobile services, the 07 range to personal services such as pagers and the 08 range for special services, including freephone and premium-rate.[10] Following a survey of future demand for numbers, Oftel published a consultation paper on changes to the NNS in August 1996 which provided the basis for the changes now proposed.[11]

Geographic Numbers

5. The survey commissioned by Oftel identified a number of area codes which would be exhausted by 2012:[12]

Cardiff, Belfast, London, Portsmouth and Southampton by 2000
Aberdeen, Bournemouth, Bradford, Brighton, Cambridge, Coventry, Derby, Guildford, Middlesbrough, Oxford, Preston, Stoke-on-Trent, Wigan and Wolverhampton by 2005
Ascot, Bolton, Iver, Markyate, Northampton, Peterborough and Rochdale by 2012

Oftel's current proposals are intended to deal with the first group of codes, which it was predicted would exhaust by 2000, and Coventry. Further proposals concerning the other areas are due soon.[13]

6. Oftel's initial intention was to create new codes for the areas where numbers were running short which would run in parallel with the existing ones.[14] It was on this basis that Oftel said after phONEday in 1995 that "no individual user would need to change his number again". This proposal was dropped after "consumers made it clear they did not want such [a scheme]...as it would mean the end of local dialling" and the current proposals emerged.[15] These are, for:

London, the introduction of a new code 020 to replace both 0171 and 0181, with all local numbers becoming eight-digit by the addition of the prefix "7" (inner London) or "8" (outer London) to the existing seven-digit numbers
Northern Ireland, the replacement of all codes in the province with 028, with local numbers becoming eight-digit, the first one, two or three digits indicating the geographic location
Cardiff, the introduction of a new code 029 to replace 01222, with six-digit local numbers becoming eight-digit by the addition of the prefix 20
Coventry, the introduction of a new code 024 to replace 01203, with six-digit local numbers becoming eight-digit by the addition of the prefix 76
Portsmouth and Southampton, the introduction of a single regional code 023 to replace 01705 and 01703, with six-digit local numbers becoming eight-digit by the addition of 92 for the former and 80 for the latter

The new numbers will be launched on 1 June 1999, although the old numbers will continue to work until August-October 2000.[16]

7. A controversial aspect of these proposals was the introduction of regional codes in Northern Ireland and for Southampton and Portsmouth. Oftel also suggested this option for other areas, including Wales where it was rejected following a consultation exercise.[17] BT's response to the August 1996 consultation paper raised a number of objections to the creation of regional codes, including that:[18]

they may involve number changes for customers in areas where there is abundant spare numbering capacity, for instance in Northern Ireland outside of Belfast
local dialling may not imply local pricing, as it does at the moment. BT Customers in Southampton and Portsmouth will be able to telephone each other using only a local number, but such calls may be charged at a regional rate
the superimposition of regional codes on the area code system may create dialling and pricing inconsistencies. BT customers in Winchester, for instance, will be charged at the local rate for dialling a Southampton 023 number and at the regional rate for dialling a Portsmouth 023 number

We return to these issues later.

Corporate Numbers

8. Oftel made a tentative suggestion in 1996 that the 05 number range be designated for corporate use. A later consultation document suggested that firms and other organisations could relinquish their geographic numbers in return for blocks of 05 numbers containing 100,000 or 1 million numbers in total. Some numbers would be reserved for small and medium-sized enterprises. In December 1997 Oftel announced that it would be prepared to allocate 05 numbers to corporate customers if the demand for such a service existed and that this policy would be reviewed in 2000.[19] The Director General described Oftel's plans as "in theoretical terms...very attractive" but admitted that "demand for the 0500 numbers seems at best muted".[20]

Mobile, Pager and Personal Numbers

9. Oftel noted in 1996 that 75% of mobile numbers lay outside of the 04 range specified in the NNS and that 5% of personal numbers could be found outside of the 07 range, and that there were no plans to bring all such numbers into conformity with the Scheme. It proposed to change the NNS to ensure that by 2001 all mobile, paging and personal numbers would be located on the 07 range. The change of the mobile range from 04 to 07 was proposed because "evidence suggests that it is tariff and broad service type, rather than information about the type of technology which delivers the service, which is important to people making calls to these numbers".[21] Oftel also argued that the 07 range had "begun to be recognised as a 'Find Me Anywhere' service" in Europe.[22] The NNS was revised in April 1997 to set aside the 070 sub-range for personal numbering, 076 for paging services and 077, 078 and 079 for mobile services. A working group was established to consider how numbers outside these ranges could be migrated into them.[23] The new numbers will be launched on 30 September 1999, although the old numbers will continue to work until 28 April 2001.[24]

Special Rate Services

10. Special rate services include freephone, as well as numbers which are charged at the local-rate or national-rate, no matter from where they are called. Numbers which are charged above the national-rate are premium rate services, referred to in paragraph 14 below. From the outset, the NNS specified the 08 range for special rate services. In 1996 Oftel suggested that "the most logical way forward would be to plan for the competitively-neutral migration of codes so as to consolidate freephone behind the 0800 code with tiered steps in the code range so higher 08xx numbers indicated a higher fixed charge to the caller".[25] It has subsequently been accepted that, by 2000, local-rate numbers will move to the 084 sub-range and national-rate numbers to the 087 sub-range.[26]

Freephone Numbers

11. Since 1996 Oftel has sought to tackle two separate issues regarding the future development of freephone numbering:[27]

the means by which freephone codes outside of the 080 range — specifically the 0500 numbers controlled by Cable & Wireless — could be brought into conformity with the NNS
ensuring that existing nine-digit 0500 and 0800 numbers conform with the ten-digit system defined by the NNS

The revised NNS, issued in April 1997, stated that "Oftel expects that with the introduction of direct allocations of individual 08 numbers for end users and with normal number churn, the 08 codes will become firmly established as the standard ranges and that a market-led migration from codes outside the 08 range will take place". There were no plans at this stage for 0500 customers to be migrated by Oftel to the 080 range, although a review of the market-led migration was announced. Oftel further stated that, for all special rate services, "the number length will normally be ten digits but may in specified circumstances approved by Oftel vary from ten to seven digits".[28] No plans to migrate existing nine-digit customers to ten-digit numbers then existed.[29]

12. A consultation paper dealing with both freephone issues was published in July 1998. It set out seven options for change, all of which would bring the 0500 numbers into the 080 sub-range, but only some of which would also standardise the length of freephone numbers. Two options were detailed in the main body of the text, the rest being relegated to an appendix. Oftel indicated that its preference was for Option 2 which would migrate all 0500 numbers and nine-digit 0800 numbers to become ten-digit 0800 numbers.[30] The implications of Option 2 were set out in more detail by Oftel in November 1998:[31]

0800 64x xxx numbers would be "moved elsewhere on an individual basis"
0800 4xx xxx numbers would become ten-digit 0800 64x xxxx numbers
all other 0800 xxx xxx numbers would become ten-digit 0800 4xx xxxx numbers
all nine-digit 0500 numbers would become ten-digit 0800 2xx xxxx numbers

13. These proposals have proved the most controversial of those resulting from the implementation of the NNS. The Freephone User Group, representing over 100 organisations holding freephone numbers, was formed in August 1998 to "inform companies that use freephone numbers about, and organise opposition to, Oftel's proposals to alter freephone numbers".[32] The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), representing over half of the major freephone users in the UK, has also opposed the changes.[33] The results of the consultation exercise, published by Parliamentary written answer, showed that whereas 32 respondents expressed support for the Option 2 proposals, 99 were opposed, the overwhelming majority being members of FUG and the DMA.[34] We expect Oftel to consider the conclusions we draw from this inquiry, as well as the responses it has received to its freephone consultation exercise, before proceeding further.

Premium Rate Services

14. Consumer research sponsored by Oftel in 1996 found that 67% of respondents supported the designation of the 09 number range for services charged at a premium rate. There was also "significant demand for premium rate service numbers to be structured in a way that gives customers more information about the likely cost of the service".[35] Consequently, Oftel amended the NNS so that all premium rate services must move to the 090 and 091 number sub-ranges in 2000. [36]

Other Ranges

15. The NNS has left the 021, 022, 025, 026 and 027 sub-ranges and 03 range free for future geographic codes; the 071 and 072 sub-ranges are intended for future personal numbering services; the 073, 074 and 075 sub-ranges are free for future "find me anywhere" services; the 081, 082, 083, 085, 086, 088 and 089 sub-ranges are free for future special rate services; and the 092-099 sub-ranges have been designated free for multimedia and other services. The 04 and 06 ranges have been left entirely free and without designation.

4 Numbering for Telephone Services into the 21st Century, Oftel, Jul 89 (hereafter, Oftel Jul 89) paragraphs 8-10; Numbering Options for the Future.2, Oftel, Aug 96 (hereafter Oftel Aug 96) paragraph 2.3 and appendix B Back

5 Not all usable numbers are used, however. See paragraphs 20-21 Back

6 When counting the number of digits in a telephone number, the national-dialling prefix "0" is ignored Back

7 By July 1989 only 16 codes remained available for allocation; Oftel 89, paragraph 23. Back

8 Ev, pp68-70 for more details of Oftel's consultations Back

9 Ev, p1, paragraph 1 Back

10 Oftel Aug 96, paragraphs 1.6-1.12; Oftel initially suggested that the 03 range be set aside for mobile telephone numbers, see Numbering: choices for the future, Oftel, Jun 93 (hereafter Oftel Jun 93), paragraph 9.17 Back

11 Oftel Aug 96 Back