Clive D. W. Feather wrote:
writes
But far too
many phone companies are forgetting this and adding extra digits, with
the stupid objective of keeping all the phone numbers the same length -
even the ones that are only used for modems to dial out on!

If you make the numbers different lengths it makes the routeing logic
more complicated

Over here they give businesses the option of buying shorter numbers.
Don't they do that at all where you are?

and, therefore, more expensive. You have to plan for
the longest number.

Making some numbers longer shouldn't be any more expensive than making
all numbers longer.