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Was it always like that? The record was released in 1982.

I know in my part of the world we went from 2-digit local numbers to 3-4-5 digits, to 8 or 10 digits over a century.

My point being this is simply routing implementation details. Even USA has 911 for example.

I looked at a London telephone book from 1979, when I think the record was released.

Most of the phone numbers were something like 01 361 1234, i.e. seven digits after the 01 area code. The _361_ part was bold, so I think that was an exchange number.

A few numbers were something like "Placename 12345". Wikipedia explains why that was.

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