A Hadley man has spent the last 18 months answering the telephone to computers.

Jeremy Parker, from Langley Row, has almost exactly the same number as a BT Internet service provider, and says the majority of calls to his home are from modems looking for the web.

"I live in Barnet so my phone number starts 8440," he explained. "It turns out that numbers starting 08440 are frequently used for the numbers of contact points for reaching the internet.

"Missing out the zero when trying to call the internet seems to be an easy mistake to make. You would be surprised how often it happens."

Mr Parker said he was reluctant to change his number as he has had it for years and it is used as a contact number for the Barnet branch of the London Cycling Campaign.

A BT spokesman pointed out Mr Parker had not contacted them about this problem for more than a year, and that the simple solution would be to change his telephone number.

"Unless he wants a re-number I don't think there is an awful lot we can do to stop it," he said. "It sounds to me that it's people misdialling. It doesn't look from what we can see that there is a technical problem on the line, but it's one of the things we will look at again," he said.

If you are experiencing similar problems to Mr Parker call British Telecom on 150.

October 17, 2001 10:27

LEIGH COLLINS