Mercury Communications Ltd has moved its position on the proposed UK renumbering scheme and now favours a six month delay to to prepare for it. The change of heart has come after consultation with users and other interested parties, who feel that more fine detail needed to be thrashed out before a changeover date is set, currently Easter 1994. The decision comes as a fillip to the Telecommunication Managers’ Association which has consistently opposed Mercury’s plan and UKP3,000m cost estimate, far higher than the Office of Telecommunications’ forecast. Mercury still favours adding an extra digit to all numbers, rather than rationalising and reclaiming underused dialling codes on a piecemeal basis. But, in a speech to the Second UK Numbering Conference, project manager Sue Griffin said that she now favours a six-month delay, primarily to allow more time to assess the impact of the change. Among the issues she identified as being unresolved is the period of parallel running time between the old and new systems, and the question of number portability – enabling customers to keep their number if they swap carriers. Also, she drew attention to the wide variance in cost estimates. Oftel has not published its figures for the overall bill because the expense to the carriers is considered commercially sensitive, but it estimates the cost to users as UKP1,100m. However, according to director general of the Telecommunication Manager Association, David Harrington, Oftel has been quoting UKP200m, although this is an estimate for altering customer premises equipment only, and ignores the costs of endless wrong numbers and changes to stationery. Certainly, an Oftel spokesman initially quoted us the lower figure, but he subsequently revised the cost upwards. Despite Mercury’s new stance, the regulator says that the change will go ahead as planned, and users will be officially informed of details in the near future.
