Ofcom UK Tweak Geographic Phone Numbering and Local Dialling

Ofcom has today set out their final changes to the rules that govern the use of phone numbers in the UK, which has opted to retain the existing rules on geographic numbering and remove the obligation on telecoms providers and broadband ISPs to provide local dialling to customers.

Back in 2019 the regulator moved to review how phone numbers would be handled and ported in the future (here), which was intended to reflect the rapidly increasingly move away from traditional fixed line analogue phone (PSTN / POTS) services and toward modern Internet Protocol (IP / VoIP) based digital voice platforms.

In the past it was normal to take a landline phone and then broadband was treated as an optional add-on, but today most of us only use our fixed line for broadband. As a result, the home phone service often goes largely unused and has now become an optional extra (i.e. people prefer the affordability of mobile phones, VoIP and internet messaging).

However, the shift to all-IP style networks and VoIP products also creates new challenges, such as in terms of how you handle phone numbers that are more likely to be associated with a person or family than a specific geographic location (i.e. phone numbers are becoming more flexible and portable).

Ofcom have been trying to answer this via a number of changes, such as via the forthcoming One Touch Switch (OTS) process. But they’ve also been reviewing their rulebook for phone numbers in the UK – called the National Telephone Numbering Plan (the Numbering Plan) – and have now finalised their position.

Ofcom’s Numbering Plan Changes for 2022

Maintaining landline phone area codes

We are keeping the existing rules on geographic numbering which allocate the first few digits of a landline phone number to an area (the area code) and provide location significance. Although IP networks do not require area codes to route calls in the same way as legacy networks, and recognition of the geographic link between phone number and location is declining, it is still valued by some people and businesses. We have therefore decided not to remove this link.

These rules permit out-of-area use of geographic numbers which we consider provides an important degree of flexibility in number use for people and businesses.

Removing the obligation on telecoms providers to provide local dialling

Local dialling lets someone make a call from one landline to another landline in the same area without dialling the area code. We are removing the requirement to provide local dialling on landline phone services since we consider that the value of this facility to phone users has declined and it is more complex to provide on IP networks. We anticipate that telecoms providers are likely to remove this facility as they migrate landline customers to new IP voice services.

We have set out our expectations for measures that telecoms providers should take when removing local dialling to mitigate any risk of confusion or harm for their customers.

Ofcom’s previous consultation on this area also proposed a measure to remove the incentive for “cash for calls” schemes. When a phone company divides the revenue that it receives for terminating a call with the calling party, this provides an incentive for making calls. Such schemes incur costs for the phone companies originating the calls, and these costs could ultimately be passed on to their customers.

The regulator indicated that it could tackle ‘cash for calls’ by prohibiting the sharing of revenue with calling parties, but as it stands they are currently still “considering the responses received and gathering additional information” before announcing a final decision on this.

Separately, Ofcom said they were also continuing to examine the future role for 084 and 087 non-geographic numbers.