What is a Protected Number?

A protected number is a phone number that has been allocated to not be routed to any communications provider for numerous and diverse reasons such as media depictions for TV and Radio.  While these protected numbers won't ever get used by real customers, they are real but will never be connected to a telephone line. Attempting to call them will only ever result in hearing a “number unobtainable” message. They are also referred to drama numbers, dummy numbers, or fake numbers.

How to Know if a Number is Protected?

The main communication regulator of United Kingdom, Ofcom, has geographical lists of UK based numbers where the public will be able to determine if a number is protected or not. For the numbers listed as allocated, the list will also state with which communication provider that it is set to and the date of allocation to that provider. 

For a complete listing of these numbers, please refer to the Ofcom Numbering Data Page.