3rd April 2012
E-mail from Charlotte Christison - Associate, Government and Parliamentary Business Ofcom to Councillor Barry Goldbart
26th March 2012
Subject: Dialling the 01202 Bournemouth code from 1st November 2012
Dear Cllr Goldbart
Dialling the 01202 Bournemouth code from 1st November 2012
In September last year we wrote to you about Ofcom’s plans to ensure that new 01 and 02 phone numbers will continue to be available from all providers in all parts of the UK. We said that these proposals were likely to affect people in the Bournemouth area and that we envisaged that any changes would come into effect in mid 2012.
I can now confirm that we will have to implement this change in Bournemouth, as we previously forecasted, and that people living in Bournemouth, Poole and Christchurch will soon have to dial the 01202 area code to make a local call. This is designed to safeguard the future supply of landline numbers in the area in light of increased demand for numbers from a growing number of landline providers. Our consumer research shows this to be the least disruptive option, which avoids the need to change existing telephone numbers. The cost of calls will not be affected by this change.
We are proposing that this change will come into effect on 1 November 2012. We have been in discussions with the Corporate Communications team at Bournemouth Borough Council for advice on the best ways to let residents and local businesses know of the changes well in advance and are working with telephone providers, local consumer and business groups and charities to draw up a comprehensive public campaign. We continue to work with Age UK and Ofcom’s Advisory Committee for Older and Disabled People to understand any particular needs for older and vulnerable consumers. Please find below a briefing which sets out in more detail the background to these changes.
We would be more than happy to come to Bournemouth to hold a briefing session for you and other local councillors on these changes and what they mean for residents in your ward. Please feel free to contact me if you would find this useful.
Yours sincerely,
Charlotte Christison
Associate, Government and Parliamentary Business
Ofcom, Riverside House, 2a Southwark Bridge Road, London SE1 9HA
What's the problem?
Currently, Ofcom allocates 01 and 02 telephone numbers to around 300 telecoms providers across the UK free of charge in large blocks. These companies then use the numbers to provide services to homes, businesses and other organisations. The number of telecoms providers has increased significantly over the last eight years, leading to more competition and cheaper landline bills for millions of homes and businesses. But it has also led to increased pressure on the supply of phone numbers, as well as some telecoms providers holding a significant quantity of unused numbers.
We have just 16 blocks of 1,000 01202 numbers left to allocate as of 21 January 2012 and our forecast indicates that we will run out of 01202 number blocks to allocate to telecoms providers during the latter part of this year.
What is Ofcom doing about it?
To ensure that future demand from new and existing phone companies is met, people in some areas will need to dial the whole phone number, including area code, when making local calls. The only real alternative solution is to require people to change their numbers, but this is far more disruptive and our research shows that consumers are keen to avoid this.
At the moment, when making a local call it is not necessary to use the area code. But this prevents Ofcom from allocating local numbers beginning with a 0 or 1 - such as 01202 075 362 or 01273 118 903. This is because if a local resident dialled 075 362 or 118 903, for example, omitting the 01202 code, the network would think they were dialling a mobile number (075) or directory enquiries number (118) rather than a local Bournemouth number. However, using the code for local calls enables us to introduce many more numbers without this confusion.
We are also launching a pilot scheme to charge providers 10p per phone number per year in around 30 areas (out of a total of 610 areas) where numbers are most scarce to encourage communications providers to consider their plans carefully before applying for new bulk allocations of phone numbers and to incentivise the return of unused numbers to Ofcom.
What will happen?
We are proposing that from 1 November 2012, people in Bournemouth will have to dial the whole phone number, including the 01202 code, as they currently do when making a local call from a mobile - even when making a local call. The price of a local call will not be affected.
Letting people know
We are working with telephone providers, the local council, local consumer and business groups and charities to draw up a comprehensive campaign to inform residents well in advance of the need to dial the code. We are also talking to Age UK and Ofcom's Advisory Committee for Older and Disabled People to understand any particular needs for older and vulnerable consumers.