0191

The 0191 UK Telephone dialing code is used by the following

Many prefixes such as 0191-350 are used by Cable and Wireless in Newcastle City Centre, and many 0191-4 numbers are now connected north of the River Tyne because blocks of 0191-2 are exhausted.

The 0191 code (previously 091) was introduced in 1982 and phased in over a period of approximately five years. It was the first new director area since the STD system was introduced into the UK.

Conversion

The first area to be converted was Newcastle Upon Tyne (0632) and the change over took about 20 months. Newcastle City Centre 5-digit numbers in 0632 all began with 2, so 18 months before the scheme started, their numbers were prefixed with 3; this would allow the number 2 to be utilised for the North Tyne numbering part of the scheme. The first exchanges to convert to 7 digit dialling were Blaydon, Birtley and Washington. Their local 6 digit numbers already began with 4 and were situated south of the River Tyne, to alleviate mis dialling and confusion they were the first localities to convert. The main problem was that Blaydon numbers already began with 44, therefore mis-dialling in this exchange was inevitable.

To prevent mis-dialling between 0632 44XXXX and 091 444 XXXX, a plan was devised to change all South Tyne numbers beginning with the digit 4 to 7 digits by inserting 1 between the first two digits. No similar probems occurred in North Tyneside as number 2 was no longer in use, 5 was not in use in Sunderland and 3 was never used in Durham. Local numbers were changed as follows: from Birtley 40 to 410, from Blaydon 44 to 414 and Washington 46 to 416. At the same time, Ryton, the only exchange in the Newcastle area with 4 figure numbers was prefixed with 413. Ryton was still utilising the old 089 422 code for Newcastle Ring until it's conversion to 091. Ryton was never upgraded to 0632 prior to 7 digit dialling.

All other numbers were prefixed with 2 - North of the River Tyne and 4 South of the River Tyne. Sunderland followed, after the Tyneside scheme was completed with a prefix, of 5 and Durham, again shortly after, with 3. Unlike Tyneside which occurred in stages, the entire Durham and entire Sunderland changeover occurred simultaneously overnight.

5 Digit Numbers in Sunderland were prefixed with 56, ie Sunderland 0783 72000 became 091 567 2000.

5 Digit Numbers in Durham were prefixed with 38, ie Durham 0385 64411 became 091 386 4411.

References

ee also

*Telephone numbers in the United Kingdom