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The UK also has something similar https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/phone-numbers/numbers-for-drama https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/ph

The UK also has something similar https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/phone-numbers/numbers-for-drama https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/phone-numbers/...

Theodores 11mo ago
My fictional British phone number is: 01 811 8055 This used to be the BBC number for call ins, particularly the kids TV show 'Swap Shop', but also for so much else during the 1970s and 1980s. This number was retired in 1990 when the London ran out of phone numbers and switched to two different prefixes, 071 and 081. The former was advertised on TV as 'Inner London' and the latter as 'Greater London'. This bit of marketing kept everyone happy. There was still a problem with numbers and the need to go for eleven digits. Hence, in 1995, the codes for London changed again, to 0171 and 0181. This was PHONEDAY. But still, more numbers were needed, plus the tech behind the scenes was ever-evolving. Hence, in 2000, the numbers changed again for London, for everything to start with 020, so 0171 became 0207 and 0181 became 0208. But then everyone got mobile phones and we no longer heard about how the economy was growing so quickly that we had this apparent incessant need for even more phone numbers. Furthermore, mobile phones had contacts built into them, so there was no need to remember phone numbers, which was just as well as eleven digits were not so easy to memorise, particularly when the prefixes had changed around so much. Hence, my personal choice of fictional number. Apart from anything else, it enables me to see how well forms are validated, plus 01 811 8055 is only going to ever be recognised as a 'famous' number by Brits over a certain age.
- ZeWaka 11mo ago
  My fictional British phone number is: 0118 999 88199 9119 725 3
  - FabHK 11mo ago
    From the hilarious TV Series "IT Crowd": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU
    - DecentShoes 11mo ago
      From the amazing, in more ways than one, Graham Linehan <3
      - egypturnash 11mo ago
        [flagged]
        alling 11mo ago
        The streaming services in recent years decided to remove that IT Crowd episode entirely, which is unfortunate as it was very funny.
        cruffle_duffle 11mo ago
        I really hate that shit a lot. There are some really funny It’s Always Sunnny episodes that have been yanked too. Like we are adults here, folks. Who are these streaming platforms to police content in that way. Same thing with basically every Louis episode. That was an amazing series.
        GaryBluto 11mo ago
        Why should I care about his opinions on identity politics? I find his comedy funny. He could be Hitler for all I care.
        hdgvhicv 11mo ago
        It’s the episode https://screenrant.com/it-ycrowd-controversy-graham-linehan-april-transphobic-bad/ https://screenrant.com/it-ycrowd-controversy-graham-linehan-... Many classic tv shows have episodes and themes which are bad today. Star Trek has a lot of 60s attitudes — Mudds Women for example. I choose to see them as signs at how far society has progressed. Or regressed in the case of trans. In the 90s the U.K. TV soap “corronation street” - watched by about 30% if the population each week - had a trans character. The character had very little controversy.ant the same time everyone loved Dane Edna. And Mrs Merton. But today those shows would be far more controversial. On the flip side, Brookside had a pre watershed lesbian kiss and it was major amounts of outrage.
  - bitwize 11mo ago
    Well, that's not so hard to remember.
- dcminter 11mo ago
  Growing up my home phone number was 4 digits for a local call, or at least so I was required to memorise it as a small child. In the very late 90s I briefly had a rotary dial phone - very anachronistic even then - and discovered that dialling an eleven digit number that way is a huge ballache - it's so sloooow! Especially if the number has a bunch of 9s in it. A little after that I was in the US but kept using my British mobile for a month or two as my contact - giving my number to people was even worse ... rattling off a 15 digit (international prefix plus country code) always confused people. I too remember the Swap Shop number with some fondness. I certainly called it at least once or twice. Last note - I realised recently that I still know the X29 address for nsfnet relay from Janet to the Internet (basically a Janet-to-telnet relay). That's a 14 digit number that I last used over 30 years ago. My memory's pretty average, but man, once stuff goes in it does not come out again!
  - Theodores 11mo ago
    I can still remember four digit numbers for some of my school friends. At the time there were two digit codes for neighbouring exchanges, however, these were not universal. For example, my parents phone was on exchange 'P' and the code to call my friends in town 'S' was 81. However, if I went to town 'G', the code for town 'S' was something completely different. The new and longer prefixes were introduced in parallel to the convenient two digit short codes. I can't quite remember all of the lingo for what the new prefixes and systems were called, however, for the rotary dial phone, you did not have to dial all ten digits (or latterly eleven), as you obviously memorised the 2 + 4 numbers for all of your friends, and only needed to spend a brief amount of time waiting for that dial to tap out its special codes. The 'Swap Shop number' was also used for early Crimewatch programmes and so much else. Jim'll Fix It was write-in only from what I remember, and I have a sister that wrote in to meet Kermit. She dodged a bullet there! I didn't get to know X29 or nsfnet as well as you, at the time networking skills were tantamount to witchcraft voodoo. However, I remember JANET addresses being back to front. For example, I was at Plymouth where it was something like uk.ac.plymouth. We also had lots of different non-TCP/IP network standards going on with considerable skill needed to get files between SGI/Sun workstations, IBM workstations, IBM mini-computers, VAX VMS and those new-fangled PCs. Kermit was the tool used for moving files around, and I am now wondering what happened to Kermit. Kermit has dropped out of the history books somewhat.
- redjet 11mo ago
  To be pedantic, both 0171 and 0181 became 020, but with the 7 or the 8 moved to the front of the number, so 0171 222 1234 [1] became 020 7222 1234, with 7222 1234 being dialable in London without the area code. There are also now London numbers that start with a 3 or a 4 as well as 7 and 8 so it's important to properly describe the dialling code for London as 020. Misconceptions about telephone dialling in the UK are so commonplace that they merit their own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_telephone_code_misconceptions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_telephone_code_misconceptio... [1] a real number that will get you through to Transport for London enquiries
- ghaff 11mo ago
  In the US, there was a period when phone numbers were getting scarce in some locales as faxes/modems/etc. were coming in. Additional area codes were added, as was lampooned in a Seinfeld episode at one point; some people got rather hot and bothered when they got migrated from the "main" metro area code to essentially a suburban area code.
- jrmg 11mo ago
  I suspect my ability to sing ‘0181 811 81 81’ might mark be out as a Briton of a certain age…
  - Theodores 11mo ago
    That brought back memories. To think there was a time when directory enquiries was free and you spoke to a real human, armed with a telephone book. Sometimes you could be on hold for a while, however, you could also be vague with your enquiry, for the operator to check spelling variants for you. Everyone used to be in the phone book, to get anyone's number was just a matter of detective work, particularly if there were lots of 'J Smith' entries and you only had a vague idea where they lived. We didn't have scam callers but 'wrong number' was quite common. People also used to phone their friends more often, since text messaging, email and apps were not available options.

The UK also has something similar https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/phone-numbers/numbers-for-drama https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/phone-numbers/...

Theodores 11mo ago

My fictional British phone number is: 01 811 8055 This used to be the BBC number for call ins, particularly the kids TV show 'Swap Shop', but also for so much else during the 1970s and 1980s. This number was retired in 1990 when the London ran out of phone numbers and switched to two different prefixes, 071 and 081. The former was advertised on TV as 'Inner London' and the latter as 'Greater London'. This bit of marketing kept everyone happy. There was still a problem with numbers and the need to go for eleven digits. Hence, in 1995, the codes for London changed again, to 0171 and 0181. This was PHONEDAY. But still, more numbers were needed, plus the tech behind the scenes was ever-evolving. Hence, in 2000, the numbers changed again for London, for everything to start with 020, so 0171 became 0207 and 0181 became 0208. But then everyone got mobile phones and we no longer heard about how the economy was growing so quickly that we had this apparent incessant need for even more phone numbers. Furthermore, mobile phones had contacts built into them, so there was no need to remember phone numbers, which was just as well as eleven digits were not so easy to memorise, particularly when the prefixes had changed around so much. Hence, my personal choice of fictional number. Apart from anything else, it enables me to see how well forms are validated, plus 01 811 8055 is only going to ever be recognised as a 'famous' number by Brits over a certain age.

ZeWaka 11mo ago
My fictional British phone number is: 0118 999 88199 9119 725 3
- FabHK 11mo ago
  From the hilarious TV Series "IT Crowd": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWc3WY3fuZU
  - DecentShoes 11mo ago
    From the amazing, in more ways than one, Graham Linehan <3
    - egypturnash 11mo ago
      [flagged]
      - alling 11mo ago
        The streaming services in recent years decided to remove that IT Crowd episode entirely, which is unfortunate as it was very funny.
        cruffle_duffle 11mo ago
        I really hate that shit a lot. There are some really funny It’s Always Sunnny episodes that have been yanked too. Like we are adults here, folks. Who are these streaming platforms to police content in that way. Same thing with basically every Louis episode. That was an amazing series.
      - GaryBluto 11mo ago
        Why should I care about his opinions on identity politics? I find his comedy funny. He could be Hitler for all I care.
        hdgvhicv 11mo ago
        It’s the episode https://screenrant.com/it-ycrowd-controversy-graham-linehan-april-transphobic-bad/ https://screenrant.com/it-ycrowd-controversy-graham-linehan-... Many classic tv shows have episodes and themes which are bad today. Star Trek has a lot of 60s attitudes — Mudds Women for example. I choose to see them as signs at how far society has progressed. Or regressed in the case of trans. In the 90s the U.K. TV soap “corronation street” - watched by about 30% if the population each week - had a trans character. The character had very little controversy.ant the same time everyone loved Dane Edna. And Mrs Merton. But today those shows would be far more controversial. On the flip side, Brookside had a pre watershed lesbian kiss and it was major amounts of outrage.
- bitwize 11mo ago
  Well, that's not so hard to remember.
dcminter 11mo ago
Growing up my home phone number was 4 digits for a local call, or at least so I was required to memorise it as a small child. In the very late 90s I briefly had a rotary dial phone - very anachronistic even then - and discovered that dialling an eleven digit number that way is a huge ballache - it's so sloooow! Especially if the number has a bunch of 9s in it. A little after that I was in the US but kept using my British mobile for a month or two as my contact - giving my number to people was even worse ... rattling off a 15 digit (international prefix plus country code) always confused people. I too remember the Swap Shop number with some fondness. I certainly called it at least once or twice. Last note - I realised recently that I still know the X29 address for nsfnet relay from Janet to the Internet (basically a Janet-to-telnet relay). That's a 14 digit number that I last used over 30 years ago. My memory's pretty average, but man, once stuff goes in it does not come out again!
- Theodores 11mo ago
  I can still remember four digit numbers for some of my school friends. At the time there were two digit codes for neighbouring exchanges, however, these were not universal. For example, my parents phone was on exchange 'P' and the code to call my friends in town 'S' was 81. However, if I went to town 'G', the code for town 'S' was something completely different. The new and longer prefixes were introduced in parallel to the convenient two digit short codes. I can't quite remember all of the lingo for what the new prefixes and systems were called, however, for the rotary dial phone, you did not have to dial all ten digits (or latterly eleven), as you obviously memorised the 2 + 4 numbers for all of your friends, and only needed to spend a brief amount of time waiting for that dial to tap out its special codes. The 'Swap Shop number' was also used for early Crimewatch programmes and so much else. Jim'll Fix It was write-in only from what I remember, and I have a sister that wrote in to meet Kermit. She dodged a bullet there! I didn't get to know X29 or nsfnet as well as you, at the time networking skills were tantamount to witchcraft voodoo. However, I remember JANET addresses being back to front. For example, I was at Plymouth where it was something like uk.ac.plymouth. We also had lots of different non-TCP/IP network standards going on with considerable skill needed to get files between SGI/Sun workstations, IBM workstations, IBM mini-computers, VAX VMS and those new-fangled PCs. Kermit was the tool used for moving files around, and I am now wondering what happened to Kermit. Kermit has dropped out of the history books somewhat.
redjet 11mo ago
To be pedantic, both 0171 and 0181 became 020, but with the 7 or the 8 moved to the front of the number, so 0171 222 1234 [1] became 020 7222 1234, with 7222 1234 being dialable in London without the area code. There are also now London numbers that start with a 3 or a 4 as well as 7 and 8 so it's important to properly describe the dialling code for London as 020. Misconceptions about telephone dialling in the UK are so commonplace that they merit their own Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_telephone_code_misconceptions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_telephone_code_misconceptio... [1] a real number that will get you through to Transport for London enquiries
ghaff 11mo ago
In the US, there was a period when phone numbers were getting scarce in some locales as faxes/modems/etc. were coming in. Additional area codes were added, as was lampooned in a Seinfeld episode at one point; some people got rather hot and bothered when they got migrated from the "main" metro area code to essentially a suburban area code.
jrmg 11mo ago
I suspect my ability to sing ‘0181 811 81 81’ might mark be out as a Briton of a certain age…
- Theodores 11mo ago
  That brought back memories. To think there was a time when directory enquiries was free and you spoke to a real human, armed with a telephone book. Sometimes you could be on hold for a while, however, you could also be vague with your enquiry, for the operator to check spelling variants for you. Everyone used to be in the phone book, to get anyone's number was just a matter of detective work, particularly if there were lots of 'J Smith' entries and you only had a vague idea where they lived. We didn't have scam callers but 'wrong number' was quite common. People also used to phone their friends more often, since text messaging, email and apps were not available options.