Is there any specific order phone numbers are distributed in a given area?

Example, while the 83**** block has the potential to cover 10,000 lines (830000 to 839999) would 830*** and 8306** greatly narrow the area down.

(As with post codes, while the first characters only direct letters to a main sorting center, the second to a regional center, and the last 2 characters narrow it down to just a street or two)

i realise it wouldnt be as simple as the house next door has a phone number one higher than you, and people moving house but to the same exchange will affect this, but as a guideline?

In answer to your Questions stew85, the simple answer is no.

Back when BT were in charge of telephone number allocation there were some patterns but this was generally down to the way the exchanges of the time handled numbering. You can still see some of the patterns today but only really with with BT numbers.

For example using the 0121 (Birmingham) area for instance. Numbers beginning 0121 2 and 0121 6 are generally City Centre, numbers begining 0121 4 are south Birmingham, those beginning 0121 7 are east, and those beginning 5 and 3 are west and north birmingham. However, Telewests numbers which are spread across most (if not all) of the prefixes can be located anywhere.

For example in the 0121 code for BT lines the next three digits on BT lines tend to denote the exchange, eg 0121 705 is Solihull, however, for telewest numbers the 'exchange' code as it was sometimes know denotes nothing. Eg you can have 604 numbers anywhere in the city or surrounding towns etc.

Now that Ofcom look after telephone numbering allocations providers can choose generally what they want as long as the block they want is not already allocated or protected.

Hope that helps

Slightly off topic I know but did you know there are no Birmingham numbers which begin 0121 8 or 0121 9.

If you want to know what the codes mean, go to this page

http://www.ukphoneinfo.com/section/tci/locator.shtml

submit your code and then click on "A table for the code allocations for numbers..........etc". You'll see thay're all mixed up now.