Re: Send-n, rat holes and real issues

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Shockey [mailto:[email protected]]
> Sent: 10 July 2008 22:16

> 
> 
> So why doesn't someone go to Gordon Brown and tell him to fix 
> the bloody UK
> dial plan? 
> 
> Oh ..that's right they tried that before and a couple of Ministers got
> sacked.
> 
> And with the latest poll numbers looking as they do 
> ...probably not a real
> option. :-)
> 
> Sorry ...

Tell you what, I'll do that when you tell George Dubya to forceably migrate everyone onto IPv6  ;-)

Seriously, though, getting a fixed length plan is a non-option.  The main fragmented range is 08.  That's because there's a mixture of legacy 0800+6 digit numbers, and newer 0800+7 digit numbers.  The industry tried to move to a uniform plan in this area a few years ago, and there was blood on the floor by the end.  You've got to recognise that large corporates have dedicated considerable advertising spend to building brands around their numbers, and they don't like to change.  Think in terms of the reaction if you went out and told every 800 number-holder in the US that they'd need to change their number...

There is a risk of this being characterised as a uniquely UK issue, though, which is not the case.  It's just we've got the biggest mouths.  Off the top of my head, similar issues would arise with complex variable length plans in Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, China, Germany, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, Monaco, Netherlands, Nigera, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland...  (this is using the criterion that it would take more than 50 lines to summarise the number lengths in the plan)

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