page_title: UK telephone code misconceptions
section_title: History of the confusion
hierarchical_section_title: UK telephone code misconceptions / London numbers / History of the confusion
caption_attribution_description: English: Phone with letters on its rotary dial (1950s, UK)
context_page_description: Widespread UK telephone code misconceptions, in particular brought on by the Big Number Change in 2000, have been reported by regulator Ofcom since publication of a report it commissioned in 2004.
  The telephone area code for most of Greater London and some surrounding areas is 020, not "0207", "0208" or "0203". A study was commissioned in 2005 which found that only 13 per cent of respondents correctly identified the 020 code for London without prompting: 59 per cent incorrectly identified it as "0207" or "0208". This is not just an issue of number appearance; the correct way to call a London landline number from a landline within the London telephone area is to dial the last 8 digits, the trunk prefix "0" and area dialling code "20", if included, are ignored.
  Other area codes with similarly widespread misconceptions about the correct area code include Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Leeds, Leicester, Northern Ireland, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Reading, Sheffield and Southampton.
context_section_description: When the UK's original STD codes were allocated in the late 1950s, London was given the code 01. Relatively few subscribers could dial trunk calls, so the 01 code was not generally included as part of the published telephone number.  In the early 1960s, London telephones still had exchange names so the first three letters had to be dialled before the four-digit local number, e.g. ABBey 1234 (London Transport).
  In the mid-1960s, All Figure Numbers (AFNs) were introduced in London and five other large cities because the number of meaningful letter combinations was becoming exhausted.  The STD codes were incorporated as part of the AFN, ABBey 1234 becoming 01-222 1234.  Callers in London were still instructed to dial only the seven digits (those after the hyphen) when calling other London numbers because a charging error would result if the 01 code were dialled, with the call being charged as a national call rather than a local call; the same principle applied for local calls within the other AFN areas. This restriction was eventually phased out as exchanges were modernised and the STD code was shown in brackets to standardise with the format used in non-AFN areas, e.g. Canterbury (0227) 234567.  The term 'Area Code' also replaced 'STD Code' which had become outdated.
  In May 1990, the single London area was split into two areas because of increased demand. Inner London was given the code 071, such as (071) 222 1234, and the rest 081. Consequently, there potentially then existed two separate numbers, because they were in different area codes, and (081) 222 1234 could also be valid. The local numbers remained as seven digits. This doubled the numbers available for London, but it also meant that a person from outer London, when calling a central London number (and vice versa), had to dial the full number including prefix. Although call charges between the adjacent areas remained at a local rate, some may have believed charges within the city increased as a result.
  To free up more numbers for future use, on Easter Sunday, 16 April 1995 (dubbed "PhONEday"), an extra digit "1" was inserted after the initial zero into all except five geographical area codes nationwide, so inner and outer London became 0171 and 0181 respectively – for example (0171) 222 1234. At the same time, those five other places gained a brand new 011x area code. The town of Reading later gained a new 011x code as available numbers quickly became scarce after PhONEday, being done in stages between 1996 and 1998.
caption: 1950s UK phone with letters on its rotary dial, as was typical for the time.
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