London 0203, 0207 and 0208 phone numbers

There has been much speculation in the press recently surrounding London phone numbers. A growing concern exists that London phone numbers will soon be running out which will necessitate another STD code to be created. This article demonstrates that this scenario is far from the truth.

The first thing to clear up is what the actual STCD code areas are. The way that London phone numbers codes are usually referred to is as follows: 0208 0207 0203

In fact the STD codes above have never, ever existed. This is a very common misconception. In actuality there is only one STD code for London which is 020 â?" this has been in place since 2000. When the current 020 code came into effect the length of London phone numbers grew from seven to eight digits long. This factor alone massively increased the capacity of available numbers (tenfold when you think about it) which will last well into this century.

The numbers after the 020 code are 3, 7, and 8. These numbers are the first part of the eight digit phone number and not part of the STD code. In other words if your phone number was 020 8765 4321 and someone in the London area wanted to call you they would have to call the full eight digit number. The introduction of (020) 3 was made in the year 2005 and made another ten million numbers available.

In brief there is no need to worry ? London 0208, 0207 and 0203 phone numbers won't run out for many, many years.