UK Telephone Code Misconceptions

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.

Owing to the marked increase in demand for more and more telephone numbers to be available for allocation since the 1990s, the United Kingdom's telephone numbering system has been restructured several times on both a national and regional level, resulting in several modifications to the way British telephone numbers are written. As a consequence of these changes, many people were left with a misunderstanding of how the system of area codes and local numbers operates.

The telephone area code for most of Greater London and some surrounding areas is 020, not "0207", "0208" or "0203". All London telephone numbers have eight digits, most clearly expressed as two sets of four. The London number (020) 7222 1234 can be dialled as 7222 1234 from any other land-line whose area code is also 020.

A further study was commissioned in 2005 which found that only 13% of respondents correctly identified the 020 code for London without prompting: 59% incorrectly identified it as "0207" or "0208".

Other affected area codes include Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Leeds, Leicester, Northern Ireland, Nottingham, Portsmouth, Reading, Sheffield and Southampton.

The United Kingdom adopts an open dialling plan for area codes within its public switched telephone network. Therefore all area codes have a preceding "0" when dialling from within the United Kingdom. When dialling a UK number from abroad, the zero is not included.