NI phone confusion is feared

Telephone operators on each side of the Border are bracing themselves for possible confusion from midnight.

April 22nd has been billed the Big Number day in Britain as phone codes in six regions, including the North, are changed. A spokesman for Oftel, the British telecommunications regulator, said: "The trickiest changes are happening in Northern Ire land."

Currently 34 local codes cover the six counties, but Saturday sees the employment of just one, 048. But all local numbers will now have eight digits, instead of five or six.

To take three examples, 90 will be added to local numbers in Belfast, 71 to numbers in Derry and 816 in Omagh.

So, for Belfast, callers will have to dial 04890 followed by the local number, instead of the current 08-01232 and then the local number.

Northern and British callers will have to abandon old numbers and codes immediately from midnight on Saturday, but phone-users in the Republic will have five months to get used to the change.

Ms Nuala Buttner, of Eircom, said dialling code changes would operate from Saturday, but would not be mandatory until September.

"We will have a dual system until September 16th. Until then customers can continue using the old 08 access code followed by the local code and number," she said.

Oftel, however, hopes callers from the Republic will begin using the new codes earlier than that, "to get used to them".