Mercury has frozen work on the scheme to change all British telephone
numbers in April 1994, and wants everyone else to do the same.
Until recently Mercury had publicly accepted BT鈥檚 argument that the
only way to provide Britain with enough telephone numbers for future needs
was to add an extra digit at the beginning of every number. Mercury had
also gone along with last year鈥檚 decision by Oftel, the Office of Telecommunications,
to adopt BT鈥檚 plan for the change.
Now Mercury has become concerned about what it says is growing opposition
because costs are too high and the consultation process was not extensive
enough. Mercury has asked Oftel to take control of BT鈥檚 scheme and to delay
its implementation to make time for reappraisal.
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