D-Day for D-Digits

Ofcom, the UK telecommunications regulator, announced last Thursday that for the 01202 (Bournemouth/Poole/Christchurch area) dialling code, callers from landlines will have to dial the full national number including the 01202 code, because Ofcom want to make local numbers available beginning with the D-digits 0 and 1 – for example, 01202 012345 and 01202 123456.  (These numbers can’t be dialled without the 01202 first, since 0 and 1 have other meanings as the first digit).  Although these numbers have been available for a long time as ‘National Dialling Only’ numbers, suitable for use as ‘hidden’ numbers possibly as the destination of a redirect, they haven’t been issued to your average member of the public in the UK before.  It looks like this is all about to change, and means that an extra 200 DEF blocks (1,000 numbers) will be freed up to allocate to Communications Providers in the 01202 area, giving them a few more years before they run out of numbers.