0115 005 is a geographical number. It's simply a "national dialling only" geographical number. Such numbers are designed never to be called by end users, due to the confsion they cause. (Try dialling it from Nottingham without the Nottingham code, and you are likely to get through to somewhere in South America!) Therefore, it's most likely to be treated as a geographical call by NTL, whatever that costs at the moment.

BT's system is clearly programmed to think a "0" after the area code indicates an incorrect number, so the bleeps cut in before you've even finished dialling. But as it is a number, I think BT are obliged to let people dial it.

Back when I first encountered these numbers, some people reported being able to call them from Orange mobiles. Might be worth a try if you have an Orange phone with some inclusive minutes going spare.

since my last posting i've found out more

1.  The equiv "geographic" number  is 0115 005 xxxx
2.  but because the first digit after the area code 0115 is a "0" it's not "really" a geographic number
3.  BT phone exchanges are programmed to reject all numbers beginning with a "0" after the area code as "invalid"; same is true for all CPS operators, i.e. where someone else provides yoru phone service throuhg your BT line; same is true of 02, Voda, T-Mobile, three (and all other small mobile operators who use one of the above)
4.  so, you just can't dial 0115 0xx xxxx
5.  unless your phone line is with NTL
6.  or Orange (close linsk with NTL)

I raised this with Ofcom - not interested. They referred me to Otelo, also not interested.  Both regulators seem to be allowing NTL to get away with using "illegal" geographic numbers to make money out of 0870 calls.

Otelo and Ofcom both claimto be answerable to Parliament - I await a call back from my MP's office, but I expect iy'll be too trivial or too complicated for her!!!

so, my recommendation.... if you want to call an NTL 0115 0xx xxxx, then get yourself an NTL phone line!

My own view was initially that if the (0115) number exists and my BT phone won't call it, but an NTL line WILL, then I'm being deprived of a phone service and if BT won't fix it I'll go to Ofcom.

Having spoken to NTL, BT, O2, Ofcom and Otelo, I'm getting the feeling that the 0115 0xx xxxx number, despite looking like a geographic number but isn't (because of the zero) IS permitted under Ofcom rules; Further it should NOT actually be diallable from ANY phone line, and so the fact that you can call it from an NTL line is a bonus.

Although (as someone else previously commented) if you try to dial 0115 005 xxxx from within Nottingham and decide (quite reasonably) to drop the 0115, and just dial 005 xxxx, in my daughter's case you start to dial a Belize number (international code 00 501) - given that I only dial three more digits after, there are probably insufficient digits to actually make a call, but even so, it sounds like a bodge to me!

However, it seems that there's not much we can do, so long as Ofcom continues to allow numbers which look geographic, but aren't really.

Suggest, if you're interested, you take it up with Ofcom and Otelo - you might have more success than me.

There's new info on Ofcom's website about this

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/numbers/numbers_administered/#geog1

It's in Excel format and takes ages to download, so be patient.

There's a glimmer of hope .... the number range which I'm interested in are designated "free for national dialling". They described the number format as:

(0)+10, which I think means:

(0)11500x0000

as opposed to conventional geographic numbers which are described as:

3+7, which I think means

(0)115_xxxxxx

i.e. in our case it is NOT seven digit Nottingham number preceded by (0)115, but it's a ten digit number which happens to start (0)115 and which happens to relate to Nottingham exchange.

Let me know how you get on


Notty