On 16 Nov, 10:06, 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

I don't see that as silly at all - I see that as flexible. In the US
they have a totally rigid format of (xxx) xxx xxxx - and it just can't
adapt well to rising demand, hence the need to split area codes or add
overlay area codes - see an earlier post of mine on this issue
upthread, or read it he
http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....01e56b4a3ae90d