Ofcom have announced that London will gain 10 million more landline phone numbers later this year, through the introduction of a new ‘(020) 4’ range to keep the capital connected.
As the capital expands, there is increasing demand for new phone numbers. London’s dialling code is 020. The city currently has 30 million phone numbers allocated across the existing (020) 3, 7 and 8 ranges.
But such is the demand for numbers, fewer than a million of these are left to be handed out to phone companies, and those will be used up within a year – as Ofcom distributes 30,000 London numbers each week.
UK customers still spend 44 billion minutes making landline calls every year. And although usage is declining, most home broadband connections rely on a landline which needs a number.
Ofcom will start accepting applications for ‘(020) 4’ numbers from telecoms companies from 1 October, and expect the new numbers to start being allocated to customers from December 2019.
Source: www.ofcom.org.uk