More Information on the London SkypeIn Numbers Issue
Several posts have been written about the changes of London SkypeIn numbers. VoIP Toolkit blogger David Meyer at ZDNet UK has dug further into the issue in "Skype must 'rebuild trust' after number debacle", talking with both Ian Fogg, an analyst with Jupiter Research:
"My advice to Skype would be: if you, as a company, wish to target small businesses or even consumers, you need to respond swiftly to reassure your users that this isn't going to happen again," he said. "Don't offer a different number without some kind of transitionary agreement."
....
"The regulatory position in the UK is not keeping up with where telephony is today," said Fogg. "The bit that's important is not dialing out — it's the contact number or contact address for incoming calls. That's what's quoted [to customers and contacts]."
and Don McQueen, managing director of GCI Telecom, supplier of the affected numbers:
Although he refused to divulge the exact details of the commercial dispute between GCI and Skype, he said that a "nominal fee" for the 0207 numbers had been charged to Skype until recently, when GCI "had to move to a market-rate fee".
"We have offered everyone who has [an affected SkypeIn number] the ability to keep their number with a VoIP service from us at £4 a month," added McQueen, who claimed that just under 10,000 numbers had been affected. "This service [and price] is probably not going to be offered to other people." McQueen said that interested customers should email sales@geonum.co.uk.
Read the full post for more details, including the role of the regulatory authority, Ofcom, in all this.
Aside from the perfectly justified issue this situation creates for Skype business users, what amazes me, on reading UK Telephone Code Confusion in Wikipedia, is that Londoners don't even know which digits are part of the city code and which are part of the local phone number. According to this reference, London's city code is simply "020" and the "7", "8" and "3" are simply the first digit in the local phone number. But I guess that is the confusion created when the "authorities" keep changing city codes every few years. If you can clarify the issue, please use the Comments to this post (and/or modify the Wikipedia item).
Tags: Skype, SkypeIn, David Meyer, VoIP Toolkit, GCI Telecom, Ian Fogg, Jupiter Research, Ofcom
Comments
I don't know about UK numbers, in India most include the leading "0" as par of the area code, but International callers should not include it. "0" is not part of the city code, but an access code to indicate the presence of city code in the dialed digits. Is this also true in UK?
Posted by: Aswath | November 26, 2007 05:49 PM
Yes, you do ignore the leading "0" in making international calls to London (as you do to almost any country outside North America. One thing Skype does right is to know when the "0" is or is not required.
Posted by: Jim Courtney | November 26, 2007 07:50 PM
The correct STD code for London is 020, and London numbers are 8 digits long (currently, there are only numbers that start with 7, 8, and 3)
The changing of the codes wasn't done capriciously, but was part of a planned upgrade to expand number availability, and also categorise different STD codes.
So, London was 01. First that was split to 071 and 081, with roughly half the numbers in London getting those codes. That allowed for immediate expansion of London's needs, but it also meant that no numbers started with 01. Next, on "PhONE day" all land-line numbers had a 1 inserted, so, Bedford, for example, went from 0234 to 01234, and London's two area codes went from 071 and 081 to 0171 and 0181. Now all land-line numbers began 01. This allowed for the first digit (after the 0) to signify the type of number - so 01 is a geographical code, 03 and 08 are "lower rate" numbers - either free, or charged up to local rate, max. 09 numbers are premium rate, 07 numbers are "personal" (usually mobile phones these days, but also services that allow you to redirect your virtual 07 number to a real local number).
Next, London was reunified, by moving 0171 xxx xxxx to 020 7xxx xxxx, and 0181 xxx xxxx to 020 8xxx xxxx. Some other large areas also got 02 numbers, so now 01 and 02 numbers are geographic.
The end result of all of this is that effectively, there has been a doubling of geographic numbers available, with all the old geographic numbers having moved to 01, and 02 being practically empty, (except for those codes already moved over), and other, non-geographic codes give you an idea of what kind of service it is, and at least a first order approximation of what the call may cost.
It's really not that difficult, and I fail to see why people still have issues with it.
Posted by: Timothy | November 26, 2007 08:01 PM
promises made by companies must be delivered. all the rest is bullshit.
Posted by: jan geirnaert | tropicaljantie | November 27, 2007 04:52 AM
Yes, but now that mobile penetration is 100%+ and mobile phones in the UK (as in most places) require the full phone number including "area" code, almost everybody dials all numbers in full, even from a wired phone.
So people on an 020 phone will dial 020 and the following eight digits, not just the eight-digit "local" number. Many people just don't bother about teh difference between natioanl and local numbers any more.
Some countries, such as France, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, Norway and Italy, have recognised that; so all numbers are always dialled in full. For some reason in the UK Ofcom still likes to think of people dialling just the local number and referring to a 1950s-style card of dialling instructions when they need to know the code for the next town.
Posted by: Alan Burkitt-Gray | November 27, 2007 08:50 AM