When the whole scenario of telephone numbers began, New York City stepped up ahead of the pack and actually started the system wherein the phone numbers consisted of two alpha digits and five numeric (i.e.DA9-0123) in 1930. The alpha was the abbreviation of a place or proper name, so the DA could have stood for Dallas or Dayton as an example. In 1958, although the bell system had taken a step towards standardization, things were a little different with UK phone numbers.

Typically, in those days, there were no lettered dials on UK telephones until they introduced Subscriber Trunk Dialing (STD). Only the “director” areas of Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester had lettered dials for UK phone numbers. At the time, the three alpha-four numeric phone numbers were what were being used for UK phone numbers. Though this did lead to more widespread use with lettered dials, eventually the method was abandoned in 1968 for all-figure numbering.

The director cities listed above were prefixed for dialing in the following manner:

In the 1960’s, the prefixes were 01 for London, 021 for Birmingham, 031 for Edinburgh, 041 for Glasgow, 051 for Liverpool, and 061 for Manchester. Long after the 1960’s, some of the UK phone numbers appeared as 071 for London (Inner), 081for London (Outer), and 091 for Tyne and Wear (as examples). With VoIP systems becoming the rage in the UK, just like it is globally in general, since the dialing configurations were already in place for many years, assigning UK phone numbers to VoIP phones and service has not been difficult.

There is never any question as to the cost-effectiveness of VoIP in that it is a great way to save money on your phone bill. The application has gone beyond the residential realm into the business sector so its cost-effectiveness is a benefit to businesses as well. UK phone numbers are applicable with VoIP service providers and are just as portable in the UK as they are anywhere else in the world. Since there is so much need for inter-branch dialing as well as long distance and international calling in the UK, VoIP has been well received at the business level as well as the residential level.

Enabling a person to receive calls from a standard landline to a VoIP system using standard UK phone numbers is not a challenge, so even if you are receiving non-VoIP calls you can do so without difficulty. All you need to do is find a VoIP service provider who offers “inbound DDI’s (direct dialing inwards) and UK phone numbers. If you are having difficulty in achieving this, there are numerous forums online geared towards VoIP users in the UK, and with a simple query, you can receive valuable information that will help you in your search.

VoIP does not employ the same type of telephony as one’s standard landline service, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t get UK phone numbers in conjunction with your service. They just have to be available. There are new exchanges being created all the time for VoIP service since more and more people are subscribing to VoIP service providers everyday. Roughly 15,000+ people are subscribing to VoIP service every month according to the most recent statistics, so upgrades and improvements are not very uncommon. The technology continues advancing, hence the ability to be assigned a UK phone number.

Granted, VoIP does not employ the same telephony technology as a standard landline or PSTN service. However, the technology enables you to receive phone calls from regular or international landline phone numbers because you are assigned one of the standard UK phone numbers to use with your VoIP service.