Telephone Dialling Codes Booklets

[Mach One]

Up to around the 1980s there used to be a little booklet with a list of all the STD codes and local dialling codes that one could use when making 'phone calls. I did once have a couple, but no longer.

I would love to make a photocopy of particularly the local codes section of two particular editions, the London one and the Brighton area one. Any idea:

1) What were they called exactly, and...

2) Does anyone have any of these above?

[Mike Phelan]

This might be of use?

Google is your friend ...

[60 oldjohn]

I have the millennium edition of the "Phone book Companion" I don't remember having to pay for it. It looks like they can now be purchased by dialing freephone 0800 833 400. It's surprising what you can find by studying the first dozen or so pages of BT's Phone Directory. John C.

[ALANS ANITAS]

That is interesting Mike.

We used to live in Worcester Park, ( left in 1961 ) and the local exchange was called Derwent, which is 337.

Do other former exchange names tie up with the dialing codes?

ALAN


P S
I went to school in Surbiton where the exchange was called Elmbridge, The code of 399 does not fit.

[Tim]

Most STD codes do still "Fit" 01273(BRighton),)01225(BAth) )01774 (PReston) ,01704 (SOuthport), 0131 (EDinborough) to name but a few. A little more tricky for "director exchanges, such as those in large cities) but most of those are(or were) true. I think maybe some were an afterthought, or came into being when a new exchange area was created. And of course if you had more than ten places whose name begins with the same letters(although the exchange was then often renamed to a nearby place.)
My mum is off Almonsdsbury (01454), which also covers Thornbury,Winterbourne,Chipping Sodbury, Rangeworthy,and Pilning-none of which seem to fit. Some of these places used to be covered from Henbury(part of Bristol) and a new area was created many years ago.
With all the number changes this pattern is being lost, and will soon be the exeption, rather than the rule. Interestingly the letters on Mobile phone keypads are the same as the old dials, an old system continued!

I am not sure how this works with some Welsh place names..............

[Station X]

Interestingly the letters on Mobile phone keypads are the same as the old dials, an old system continued!

Not quite the same. Dial phones had figure 0 and letter O at the same place on the dial to avoid confusion. Modern phones have letter O next to figure 6.

Norwich was 0NO3 which became 0603.

All figure numbers came in in about 1968. They were running out of names for exchanges in director areas (London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh). Some of the names were a bit contrived for example SKYport for Heathrow.

[Mach One]

Originally Posted by Mike Phelan

This might be of use?

Thanks, Mike...

That is dealing with the names of exchanges and things in connection with the newer (1990s) STD codes. What I am talking about is only a few years after STD codes became normal to use.

Originally Posted by 60 oldjohn

I have the millennium edition of the "Phone book Companion" I don't remember having to pay for it. It looks like they can now be purchased by dialing freephone 0800 833 400. It's surprising what you can find by studying the first dozen or so pages of BT's Phone Directory. John C.

Thanks, John...

This sounds like a commercially available booklet. What I have in mind is a roughly A5 paper booklet that the Post Office used to deliver (presumably to new customers) as well as the Telephone Directory.

[Station X]

What you're looking for is a "Dialling Instruction Booklet" known as DIBs. With the removal of short dialling codes for nearby exchanges the information was incorporated in the front of telephone directories. STD codes are universal, ie the same from any exchange in the country, whereas short local dialling codes were not.

The "Phone Book Companion" has the dialling codes in numerical order so you can get a geographical location for them. Previously known as the Code Decoder.

STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialling) started in Bristol in about 1960. The director codes such as MAYfair and WHItehall date back to the 1920s and were nothing to do with STD. Codes made up from a combination of figures and letters were replaced with All Figure Numbers (AFNs) in about 1968.

You're probably looking for a DIB dated between 1960 and 1967.

[Radio_Dave]

Originally Posted by Mach One

Up to around the 1980s there used to be a little booklet with a list of all the STD codes and local dialling codes that one could use when making 'phone calls.

I can clearly remember such a booklet, which my mums telephone used to stand on, probably around 1979 - 80. I never payed much attention to it, but I'm sure there was something specific to Norwich about it .

I also, seem, to remember it having a pale blue cover and about A5 in size. Didn't they used to be in telephone boxes too?

David

[Station X]

DIBs used to be placed in phoneboxes, but like the directories they didn't stay there long before they were stolen. The dialling codes were also shown on the backboard above the phone itself. There was a mirror there too, as it was reckoned that potential vandals might preen themselves rather than vandalise the phonebox.

DIBs were phased out with the implementation of the "Full Access Subscriber Trunk Dialling Implementation Program" (FASTDIP).

[Tim]

Not quite the same. Dial phones had figure 0 and letter O at the same place on the dial to avoid confusion. Modern phones have letter O next to figure 6.

Yes your'e right!

[Roy]

I just found this on a very dusty shelf at the back of the meter cupboard, along with the candles that have probably been there since the three-day week.

Any use?

[Sean Williams]

I too remember these books - A5 ish, and a blue cover, have also seen them with a sickly yellow cover - seem to recall them arriving with the phone book on an annual basis. Being a product of 1974 I would guess this to still have been the case up to at least 1982 (think that was when we lost our chocolate brown 706)


Even the wife remembers! - so Im not going mad!

[Bryan Hopper]

All local dialing codes disappeared with the introduction of processor controlled call routing. The call charge group integrated all the local exchange groups into one bigger charge group.

[russell_w_b]

I remember these little books well.

Am I correct in thinking that it was possible to 'dial through' to a distant exchange by dialling the (local) codes for adjacent exchange-to-adjacent exchange making up the journey, as it were, rather than dialling the direct STD code for the destination itself?

[Bryan Hopper]

Originally Posted by russell_w_b

I remember these little books well.

Am I correct in thinking that it was possible to 'dial through' to a distant exchange by dialling the (local) codes for adjacent exchange-to-adjacent exchange making up the journey, as it were, rather than dialling the direct STD code for the destination itself?

These codes only allowed you access to the next local exchange from yours. You couldn't dial through them and hop along the network, or have i misunderstood what you where asking?

[KeithsTV]

Rumour has it that it was true. I recall hearing that a friend had rung Birmingham from Bangor in N Wales using that method.

Keith

[Station X]

Let's keep this on topic please.

[Herald1360]

It WAS definitely true! Problem was (apart from being fraudulent), the local circuits were unamplified, so by the time you had gone more than about 50 miles and several hops, the speech level was getting too low to be of much use.

It was of most use if you wanted to make "local" calls to neighbouring directory areas which would otherwise charge you at trunk rate A. All you needed to know was the relevant local dialling codes.

There were other more interesting tricks.....

Chris

Oops, just spotted the warning!

The dialling code booklets in remote telephone boxes (where they hadn't been nicked) were useful reference sources.

[Focus Diode]

Cheers Mike (#2). The Telephone Directories used to give this kind of info, but not anymore.

The last A5 Code Book I saw was in 1983.

Thanks again,
Brian