Local dialling codes - needed?

[Blue-Streak]

Recent transfer to EE Digital following expiry of BT Broadband contract. New router set up was straightforward but now starting to understand the specific impacts on my service at home on the change. Some I'll have to accept as part of the process of change but one I'm left uncertain of hence hoping that someone in this community will know the answer.

For calls to local contacts where a dialling code was not required I understand that one is now needed. I can live with that. However, if someone local wants to call me do they too need to use the dialling code? 

[nick_ro]

Hi there,

So with BT or EE Digital Voice, you need to dial the full area codes when making a call within your local area. People who still have local dialling do not need to put the local area code when calling you though.

Just to clarify it seems only BT/EE is requiring you to dial the local area code. I know for a fact that Sky and Vodafone offer local dialling on their versions of Digital Voice also called Internet calls.

Some areas like Brighton for example no longer have local dialling at all whether that be traditional PSTN telephone lines or Sky and Vodafone Digital voice. The reason behind it is to avoid another national code and number change as numbers are running out fast. This means in Brighton for example, they can now open 01273-150 numbers whereas before it was impossible to offer this since dialling 150 will instantly connect you with customer services, so to avoid mistakes like this, they had to abolish local dialling completely in areas which are opening up these allocations. Another example is 01273-123 or 01273-101 numbers, again dialling 123 will connect you to the talking clock and dialling 101 will connect you to the police.

BT/EE's reason for not offering local dialling at all on Digital voice is to prepare fixed line users for the future, its only going to kick the can further down the road if they offer local dialling now and then withdraw it in a few years.

Many people include the local area codes all the time anyway because they have gotten use to dialling this way because of mobile phones.

I hope this fully answers your enquiry about local dialling and an insight why some phone companies have stopped offering it completely and why some areas no longer offer it at all.

What's worse, losing local dialling or going through another national code and number change? They are confusing and annoying and places like London,Coventry,Cardiff,Portsmouth,Southampton and Northern Ireland have had 3 major changes in just over 30 years followed by an additional one to mobiles,pagers and some non-geographical numbers.