In message k
"Richard J." wrote:

G wrote:
On Fri, 16 Nov 2007 05:21:06 +0000, James Farrar
wrote:

One of the mobile companies -- Vodafone, I think -- that displays
the area the mobile is in on some handsets' screens displays 0207
/ 0208, too.

I put that down to the silly numbering conventions:

Large cities (e.g. Birmingham) = 4 digits (0121)
Provincial towns = 5 digits (e.g. 01772)
'02' numbers (e.g. London, NI, Cardiff) = 3 digits
Mobiles = 5 digits

Yes, most people seem to group the first five digits of a mobile number
(07xxx) together, but I'm not aware of any written convention that says
you should. Personally I quote mine as 0787 xxx xxxx because it easier
to remember that way.

When mobiles first came out the numbers were 10 digits, a group of four,
which identified the service company, then 6 digits to identify the
individual phone. The first group was to match in with the STD system which
used four digits to identify key exchanges. Subsequently they added in an
extra digit (7) in second place to give a number of the form 078 xxxx xxxx
however most people regarded their individual number as the six digit section
so would quote 07850 xxxxxx (in my case)


--
Graeme Wall
This address is not read, substitute trains for rail.
Transport Miscellany at http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/index.html