Steel Beams

[steel beams]

Steel beams London is the division of B&S Steel London have been trading across London for over 19 years in UK.get more information please visit at:

[Skipweasel]

"Nearly 20 years" would have been more elegant - as would not spamming newsgroups.

[Steve Firth]

[nicknoxx]

Who? Do you mean [e-mail]

[John Williamson]

Mailed already, politely pointing out the error of his ways.

With any luck, I won't be the only one.

[Terry Casey]

But the website says "We have been trading in London and the surrounding areas for over 20 years now ..."

Left hand, right hand ...

Anyway, there is no such dialling code as 0208 so I won't be calling them ...

[John Williamson]

Outer London, last I heard. Ruislip area, in this case. There's even a handy snail mail address on the website.

[ARWadsworth]

The area code is 020, the 8 is part of their telephone number not the area code.

[Skipweasel]

Yeah, that's a favourite bugbear of mine. When it got changed the publicity really should have made that a lot more specific.

[Skipweasel]

No, that's 020-8xxx-xxxx

[Andy Burns]

But *all* of London is 020, whether the local number begins with 7, 8 or

3 is irrelevant ...

[John Williamson]

Officially, yes, though most businesses I deal with seem to quote 0208 or 0207 xxx xxxx unless the new way creates a memorable pattern. I certainly *think* of it as that way. It's the way they're all saved on my cellphone except that the leading 0 is replaced by +44, as most of them date from the days of 01 xxx xxxx.

Of course, to be consistent with the rest of the country, it should be (For example) 02088 xxx xxx. But that would be too logical, I suppose.

[Adrian]

John Williamson gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

That I doubt - the split from 01 to 071/081 was 21 years ago.

[Steve Firth]

Nominet were interested in their claim to be a non-trading individual.

[John Williamson]

I know. Then it went to 0171/ 0181, and I updated the phone memories accordingly each time. The last time I did the update manually was when I changed from ATACS to GSM. I got my first cellphone (A Panasonic EBJ-1114, which is still in a cupboard somewhere) in about 1989. Before that, I had an operator switched radiophone run by a firm in Harrow or possibly Wembley. Friendly operators, anyway, and they would often let me overrun the official three minute call limit if the network wasn't too busy.

[Roger Mills]

No, the important thing[1] is to separate the area code from the subscriber number in such as way that you can omit the area code when dialling from the same area. Leaving off 020 works, leaving off 0208 (or

02088!) doesn't! [1] Not quite so important for those calling from mobiles or using indirect operators - in which case the *whole* number has to be dialled, even from within the same area.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Just cheapskates as it meant less alteration to their old 081 number...

[John Williamson]

Bring back Post Office Telephones, I say.

BT could conceivably have programmed their equipment so that leaving off the 0208 or 0207 worked, after all, it did that before they replaced

0171 and 0181 with the current system. Or did they *want* to emphasise that Londoners consider themselves a country apart? (Vaguely rhetorical question)

[Skipweasel]

If you were living in the 020-8xxxxxxx area you would dial 8xxxxxx, not xxxxxx. The defining question is where you break the number to dial from within that area. In the case of London it's after the 020, regardless of what the next number is.

[John Williamson]

If it ain't broke.....

Some of the people I deal with have the same last seven digits as they had in the 70s.