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Old 31st Jan 2017, 4:42 pm   #187
G6Tanuki
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,951
Default Re: Technology related anachronisms on TV and in films etc.

Quote:
Originally Posted by julie_m View Post
You have to dial eight digits in London now -- not that you'd guess, by the way most people space out the numbers.
You can only skip the "020" if you're calling landline-to-landline. If you're calling from a mobile or from any sort of VoIP-gateway (such as Skype) you need to use the full ii-digit number. To avoid confusion I *always* tell people to use the full number wherever they're calling from, and have done so for the last 15 years or so, even for 'local' calls.

Must admit, I was always intrigued by the 3-letter "named" exchanges [WHItehall, CROydon, MUSeum etc] in London - it added a nice 'period' touch to publications and radio/TV productions in the post-WWII epoch.

Speaking of phone-related anachronisms, until quite recently in many radio programs where someone was supposedly phoning within the UK, the producers continued to include the very short-duration "pip" when the called-party picked up the phone. I forget what this was called but it ceased being used quite a while ago - a fact which TV producers seemed oblivious to.
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