In reply to a post by jchamier:

I remember the Genie brand from cellnet, wasn't that about the time of WAP ?

Yep, early 2000's

Ermmm?
My first number (definitely Orange) started with 0973, but had to change to 07973 when the UK system changed.

So the same, but not the same .

The six-digit unique number started 160.

In reply to a post by pluralist:

My first number (definitely Orange) started with 0973, but had to change to 07973 when the UK system changed.

The 0973 area code was assigned to Orange PCS Ltd and only started in 1994. Myself, members of my family, and some friends still have that code. The 7 was added when Oftel/Ofcom decided that "talking digits" was sensible, and we ended up with the same number of telephone digits as countries over three times our size, not necessarily a good thing. Back in the days when sitting in London, calling Edinburgh was expensive, but calling Brighton was cheap, mobiles provided a single rate.

The six-digit unique number started 160.

The first group (April 1994) started 2xxxxxx then they moved to 3xxxxxx and then back to the 1's later on, as they were apparently reserved for "golden numbers" for those that wanted to pay much more money for memorable. Similar to 0973 973 973 or 0973 123 123 etc.

Edited by jchamier (Mon 18-Apr-22 11:11:29)

Post deleted by gary333

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by pluralist:

My first number (definitely Orange) started with 0973, but had to change to 07973 when the UK system changed.

The 0973 area code was assigned to Orange PCS Ltd and only started in 1994. Myself, members of my family, and some friends still have that code. The 7 was added when Oftel/Ofcom decided that "talking digits" was sensible, and we ended up with the same number of telephone digits as countries over three times our size, not necessarily a good thing. Back in the days when sitting in London, calling Edinburgh was expensive, but calling Brighton was cheap, mobiles provided a single rate.

The six-digit unique number started 160.

The first group (April 1994) started 2xxxxxx then they moved to 3xxxxxx and then back to the 1's later on, as they were apparently reserved for "golden numbers" for those that wanted to pay much more money for memorable. Similar to 0973 973 973 or 0973 123 123 etc.

I remember back in the day at cellnet (well I say cellnet there wasn’t really a cellnet rather just a collection of multiple service providers and systems under that brand name), we had a screen where you could search for golden numbers, but as it was a fully text based interface based on IBM mainframe it was very clunky to find numbers as you were just presented by page after page of just numbers to tab through. People would check for fun when on downtime to see what best combinations were.

Anyways, we had bronze, silver, gold & platinum numbers. However, some of the numbers were reserved as VIP and were not available at all, at the time they had names attached, but these were not customer names, and no-one really knew why. Some of these were the best number combinations possible, whilst others were just relatively basic combinations. Not entirely sure why they were visible in the pool but totally excluded as non of the documentation mentioned their propose.

Wonder what happened to them as in 2004 the legacy system was decommissioned and I don’t think these older pools of numbers were ever made available in the new system (as it didn’t have this capability) and from then on it was managed by spreadsheets to show which number was which, and what differentiated each category. It’s likely some of those brilliant original cellnet VIP combinations were never allocated, as I think even in the underlying network system they had been reserved under a non existent service provider.

Maybe mine was a 1 because of being a business contract? It was just a bog standard assigned number at Carphone Warehouse as far as I know. Or maybe third-party sales were from the reserved range.

AIUI they can't still have the 0973 code as 09 is the premium rate call numbers now. The Orange/EE ones were automatically changed. There would have to be some weird and wonderful and nonsensical interception and diversion internationally if you called them on 0973 nnnnnn.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by gary333:

Although this was after my time (so I wasn’t working there when this happened), I was led to believe (I.e. told when working for rival call connections limited an SP of cellnet), that Rabbit was the name of Hutchison Microtel cellular offering and that they closed down towards the end of 1993 / early 1994 and customers who wanted to continue with Hutchison were migrated to the new “modern” network called “Orange”.

Rabbit wasn't cellular. It was a "Call Point" system. You bought an expensive cordless digital phone for home use, and you could take the phone out with you. Yet you could only make calls when you were close to a Rabit sign, you couldn't receive. It didn't catch on. I saw it on Tomorrows World and at the time everyone thought it was a "portable phone box".

Edit: That’s an impressive time for your number.

I know a handful of people whom have numbers for the same duration. I remember the Genie brand from cellnet, wasn't that about the time of WAP ?

Yeah, I remember telepoint systems as a kid, good to be able to after all these years know rabbit was just that. Although, we did have customers in the system where rabbit and Hutchison references were made in the notes. Our training made out you were offered to “migrate” to the new Hutchison network (what became orange) or you could move to cellnet or Vodafone straight away, thus why I recall migration and why some might think they had been with Orange longer than they had existed.

This article from 1993 seems to suggest the same https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/hutchiso...

Yeah, I think Genie was around 2001, it was actually something dealt with by BT if memory serves me correctly rather than the existing cellnet service providers (at BT “first” in Doncaster maybe?). I also think the Genie billing system (called Geneva) was the test bed for the later front end system that became the dominant “one to rule them all” o2 billing system for consumers (Companion UK or CUK). Dise being the business side for anyone interested (originally being the Martin Dawes service provider).

At the time the service provider I primarily worked with couldn’t do two APNs so you were up a creak if you wanted WAP and MMS, I mean come on you could just use the “fax” line we set you up to send a picture, no, lol.

Edited by gary333 (Mon 18-Apr-22 12:59:04)

Could have been business easily. Or reserved for sale through third parties. Lost in history and yes everyone’s codes were changed on the second “Phone day”. The first was the 01 for fixed line.

So 11 digits for a U.K. phone number. Same as USA when the hidden 0 or 1 is included. Yet we have 69 million people and they have 300 million. Must be some mistake 😂

In reply to a post by adslmax:

I got great offer deal with smarty 5G for unlimited data, unlimited minutes and unlimited texts for just £16 a month through uswitch offer deal.

Some day I get 800Meg down and 110Meg up - not bad at all.

Which begs the question, why are you getting your knickers in a twist about this ?

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Which begs the question, why are you getting your knickers in a twist about this ?

mind your own business, this is my thread.