Digital Voice and area dialling codes

Sterlingtimes

I have Digital Voice provided by Zen Internet.

When I dial local numbers with the area access code 01676, I must dial 01676 in addition to the local number. However, when my family dials the local doctors' surgery, the 01676 prefix is unnecessary. Can anyone explain the reason for this?

la531983

Probably because the network you are using (a VOIP one no doubt) is not local to you like the BT network is, and the full number will need to be used. 

Neil_Jones

On digital voice treat it as you would your mobile phone.

You need to dial area codes from mobiles, so you need to do it from DV as well.

DullGreyGuy

VOIP is non-geographical like a mobile phone, it can be used anywhere in the world and so like mobiles you need to include the area code when dialling. A traditional landline has a fixed place and so has a local network which it can dial without needing to give the dial code for that network. 

400ixl

As above, it's a non geographical service so it does not know what other numbers are local.

As others have said, treat it in the same way you would a mobile.

Sterlingtimes

Thank you all. But why does the doctors' surgery not require the prefix when other numbers do?

iniltous

The way  the original question was phrased suggested to me that your ‘family’ were using a different line to yourself ( otherwise why differentiate between calls you make and the calls your family make to the doctor) and simply say I need to use the 01676 prefix for all local numbers apart from the doctors surgery which doesn’t need the STD code and simply needs the 5 or 6 digits of the ‘local’ number .
If ( for arguments sake ) your doctors number was 01676 123456 and you could contact them by simply dialling 123456 , but your local takeaway was 01676 123457 but that needs the full 11 digit number that would be odd,
Have you actually tried this yourself , or are your ‘family’ stating they haven’t changed the way they call the doctors ?, after all , the doctor could be a ‘saved’ number on the phone and the full number was already entered on that memory location ….even before any DV compulsory requirement to use the STD code , if someone used the STD code when it wasn’t needed , the call still connected.

Sterlingtimes

iniltous said:

If ( for arguments sake ) your doctors number was 01676 123456 and you could contact them by simply dialling 123456, but your local takeaway was 01676 123457 but that needs the full 11 digit number that would be odd

Thank you. Each of our three DECT 'phones is connected quite separately wirelessly to the Fritz!Box router. Today, I telephoned the following on 01676 numbers: my mother, the local pharmacy and the local doctors without using the pre-fix. All surprisingly connected. No numbers are not stored in the DECT 'phone. 

The router log identifies local numbers without area code. It appears, therefore that it is not necessary to dial the area code.

Sterlingtimes

Further to the above, from the Zen Internet instruction manual:

"Making a call on Digital Voice is the same as you are used to with your standard landline. You don’t need to dial the area code for local calls, but you will for other national calls outside of your immediate area."

My family was right and I was wrong: we do not need to dial the area code for local calls.

iniltous

TBH , Zen using ‘Digital Voice’ as the ‘brand name ’ for their IP telephone service, duplicates the term BT use for their own proprietary IP service , and IMHO is a little confusing as the tendency will be to assume the  requirements of and facilities offered by BT DV ,will be the same for all ‘DV’ services, it would have been better for Zen to have a different name for their IP service , Sky don’t call their IP phone ‘Digital Voice’, Zen had pretty much free hand to call their telephone service anything they wanted , but presumably deliberately decided to use ‘DV’ even though BT were using it.

Sterlingtimes

iniltous said:

TBH , Zen using ‘Digital Voice’ as the ‘brand name ’ for their IP telephone service, duplicates the term BT use for their own proprietary IP service , 

I wondered about this. Could it be that Zen is a reseller of the BT Digital Voice product? The Zen product provides 1,000 landline and/or mobile minutes.