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Overview of the 555-XXXX phone number
- imadethis 4y agoI wonder how many websites / applications would break or error if a user tried to enter a valid 555 number.
- Splatter 4y agoI have a valid phone number that ends in 0000 that I got multiple decades ago. There are many websites where I enter my phone number and it's rejected. Sometimes programmers are too clever for their own good.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- PenguinCoder 4y agoA few do that I've tried signing up for services with. Not a lot though.
- once_inc 4y agoIs there also an overview of all 555-XXXX phone numbers used in movies and what they are for? 555-0001 is used in Die Hard With a Vengeance for instance. Would be fun to see if any of the numbers are used more or less often.
- iso1631 4y agohttps://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FiveFiveFive https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FiveFiveFive (nsfw) has a good list
- mathgorges 4y agoVery fun article, thanks for sharing :) I think the current title ‘You could own a 555-XXXX phone number but Verizon’s charged you $2,500 to use it’ doesn’t capture how bad the deal was —- here’s the relevant quote from the article > Verizon was notorious for charging high fees to establish service to 555 numbers, charging $2,500 for each area code that you wanted your 555 number to be routed in.
- Magicstatic 4y agoThis is the craziest part of the whole article - imagine you wanted to own something like "555-FOOD" - to have this vanity number work in every area code, you'd be looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars (annually?) if you used Verizon to route the calls
- hgsgm 4y agoso, cheaper than a premium domain name.
- rippercushions 4y agoWell, yes? At the end of the day that requires Verizon to provision that number in every single area code, which historically are all separate little domains. It's kind of like complaining that if you want to have foobar.tld for every top-level domain, you have to fork out money to every TLD registrar to make it possible.
- mynameisvlad 4y agoBut there is nothing different about 555 numbers than any other, and Verizon certainly doesn’t charge $2500 for a normal number.
- FPGAhacker 4y agoThe point is you don’t have to dial an area code with the 555. 555-abcd, sans area code, would just work and route to you no matter where (in the USA) a caller was calling from. Therefore it is equivalent to having that number in every area code. Now there is a good chance you aren’t old enough to know/remember this, but people in the US didn’t have to dial an area code (and occasionally nearby area codes) when calling people in their own area code. In the era of land lines this was the norm. You paid a lot of money per minute to call people “long distance” in other area codes. Now it’s absolutely normal and routine to dial with an area code, in large part because people’s numbers follow them around and there is no reason to think someone geographically near you is in the same area code.
- alex_young 4y agoThis title is really poor. It was $2500 per area code you connect to, and no longer offered. Not exactly something to write home about.
- version_five 4y ago> no longer offered The title says "charged", not "charges". Re the per area code, I agree, it was also my first thought, but I can't think of any way the poster could have concisely included that in the title
- User23 4y agoNone of the cool kids say “area code,” they’re NPAs. Sorry, but I have a lingering attachment to telco industry acronyms. Let me tell you about my DNIS[1]. [1] pronounced dee-nis.
- function_seven 4y agoAlways fun troubleshooting analog DID (FXO) lines that supported DNIS
- alex_young 4y ago“You could own” is present tense. Perhaps “could have” would be better?
- valleyer 4y ago"Could" can be both the conditional present tense or preterite tense in English (at least AmE). It's ambiguous. See: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/could#Verb https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/could#Verb
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- boomboomsubban 4y agoThis seems to be the site for the organization with the only one in use that isn't a redirect. https://www.eftps.gov https://www.eftps.gov I wonder how they decided to use that 555 number. They had to know the connotation 555 numbers had, it somewhat makes their site look like some scam or parody. If they were willing to use one anyways why not something like 800-555-5555? Or anything easier to remember than 3453?
- cbhl 4y agoIf you look at a telephone keypad with letters, 3453 can be mapped to FILE. So the number would be 555-FILE (which would be a reasonable mnemonic for something to do with taxes).
- boomboomsubban 4y agoA good thought. It made me wonder if they used to advertise like that but stopped as that style of phone has all but vanished. From 2005-2010, they used 800-555-8778. In 2011, they used 800-555-4477, and then switched to 3453 in 2012. In none of the years from 2012-2015 did they advertise on the homepage with 555-file, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone originally did pick that number for that reason and after they decided against advertising with it they stuck with the number. What a waste of ten minutes this was.
- hgsgm 4y agomy Android smartphone and iPad have letters on the number pad.
- boomboomsubban 4y agoI honestly can't remember the last time I used the dialer. I either call a contact or copy/paste a number.
- gregwebs 4y agoThese numbers can be used in some test situations where you want to eliminate the possibility of accidentally sending SMS or calling someone. 555-01xx is best but it seems any 555 might work.
- dboreham 4y ago555 is also used in TV shows when the script requires a phone number to be read out.
- doyouevensunbro 4y agoAs an aside, loved when shows would acquire a real number to use, the best being CALL-TUR(K) from Scrubs “I’ll always dial the ‘k’ for you”
- tokumei 4y agoI grew up Austin, off the top of my head I remember (512) 485-5555 for Time Warner Cable and (512) 459-2222 for Gatti’s Pizza. I have no use for remembering these phone numbers anymore but I’ll probably never forget them.
- RainaRelanah 4y agoReal cheese, real hot. Real taste is what we got! Gatti's nostalgia will never be useless.
- barbarbar 4y agoIt is now obvious to me why mr Bundy wanted to have 555-SHOE for his hot line to dr shoe. Such a lovely family he had there.
- s1mon 4y agoI love how it isn’t until the third paragraph that the post mentions what country 555-XXXX numbers are relevant to. This is the World Wide Web folks, not the USA web. The whole blog and offering seems US centric, to the point where I’m assuming it might not work very well at all for people outside of the North American Numbering plan area. We wouldn’t know because they seem to assume that the only people who are going to see this site live in the US, and phone numbers all need to have 9 digits.
- linsomniac 4y agoIt talks about NANPA, so wouldn't it be more accurate to say "what continent" rather than "what country"? The NA stands for North American.
- s1mon 4y agoOk, a couple of down votes on this. I’m curious why. I was born and have lived almost all of my life in the US. I get tired of provincial web sites assuming that any random person who stumbles upon it will only be from the US, or even more insane, just from the local area. ( e.g. a restaurant site which just has a street address, or a newspaper site which assumes I know which Springfield it’s about)
- archi42 4y agoThe 555 is a common trope in US movies and TV shows[0]. I always thought those are non-assignable in the US (obviously I was wrong), but it's fair to assume this trope to be well known. If you didn't know that, you're one of today's lucky 10000 :) [0] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FiveFiveFive https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FiveFiveFive [1] https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
- bazoom42 4y agoThe Ghostbusters still didn’t clue you in?
- linsomniac 4y agoI peeked through the historically reserved numbers list, and there was a surprising number of what looked like individuals listed in there. Of the 10,000 numbers available in 555 prefix, most of them seemed to be individuals. I wonder what the story was there... Were people just doing it because they could contact the NANPA and ask for one?
- boomboomsubban 4y agoI assumed individual professionals, things like an agent or a lawyer. Particularly as I saw an example where several different names redirected to the same number. Any idea what the second column is? It's labeled "CL" with the possible responses of L, N, R, or D. R seems to be reserved, D in dispute but L and N I can't place.
- GauntletWizard 4y agoOnly vaguely related, here's the Peanuts comic strip that did not use a 555 number, resulting in people calling it looking for Snoopy: https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1965/08/15 https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1965/08/15 The number in question belonged to Peanuts TV Special producer Lee Mendelson, though of course the area code was omitted and so many other random families received calls.
- WalterBright 4y agoEvery time I see a 555 number in a movie, I'm reminded that it's a movie and am dropped out of immersion. So what if the movies use a real number? They could just sign up for a number, use it, and no harm done. Or just use 867-5309. Wherever that number goes, the person there is expecting it.
- renewiltord 4y agoYou know what would be cool? If a movie bought a zero day and put it in. Haha! It would be neat if the exploit stayed undiscovered till release.
- throwaway290 4y agoThey might get sued unless they ensure that it's patched before release, though.
- hryx 4y agoSame. My favorite geezer hacker/heist movie, Sneakers, drops a realistic San Francisco phone number (415 area code) near the end. I always wondered who would pick up if dialed...
- e3bc54b2 4y agoFor what its worth, Scrubs did put a real number in one of their episodes. They had a real phone that went around being answered by cast & crew and everyone had a blast. They remember it quite fondly. 2000s were a different time.
- iso1631 4y agoAccidentally had my (desk) phone number go out on a TV program which typically gets around 100k viewers (was burnt into a screen in the background of an interview) earlier this year. Very disappointed than nobody phoned it.
- nopenopenopeno 4y ago> Every time I see a 555 number in a movie, I'm reminded that it's a movie and am dropped out of immersion. What about a cut? A camera zoom? A title screen? Sub-titles? I am intrigued about how you experience films.
- boilerupnc 4y agoRelated: Here’s a number many wish they didn’t have. 867-5309 [0] [0] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/867-5309-jenny/ https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/867-5309-jenny/
- im3w1l 4y agoWhat does it mean that many wish they didn't have it? How do multiple have the same number? Edit: And in case you thought I misinterpreted him the article says "The biggest complaints about the new phone exchange come from Nina Clemente '03 and Jahanaz Mirza '03, the two students with the telephone number 867-5309." Anyway if I had that number I would try to sell it to only fans or something like that lmao.
- JumpCrisscross 4y ago> How do multiple have the same number? Up to 335 people have that number [1]. [1] https://www.twilio.com/docs/glossary/north-american-area-codes https://www.twilio.com/docs/glossary/north-american-area-cod...
- MiddleEndian 4y agoIt is only seven digits, so it doesn't start with a 3-digit area code. In the past, seven digit phone numbers in the United States would just default to whatever area code you were calling from. Now we need to enter all ten digits, area code included, due to mobile phones and such. That number could, and does, exist for many US area codes.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- codefeenix 4y agoJust waiting for the .timer TLD so someone can get 555.timer
- K7PJP 4y agoWhen looking at the historical list of these numbers, a massive percentage of them were issued to individuals in Maryland (area codes 410/301.) What was going on there?
- Fomite 4y agoPerhaps people seeking a number that would span the area codes of MD, VA and DC?
- supernova87a 4y agoI remember also that some 555-xxxx number is what you can dial to get your ANI, but maybe that is from ages ago. Or somehow, this number always keeps changing because they don't want you to use it?
- Sniffnoy 4y ago"Computers Are Bad" wrote more about the history of this: https://computer.rip/2021-02-20-555-500-710-etc.html https://computer.rip/2021-02-20-555-500-710-etc.html
- Eleison23 4y agoConan O'Brien once introduced a running gag with the explanation that if he mentioned a fake website on the air, the network (NBC) was obligated to purchase and operate that website and it had better not exist already. (You could hear them mentioning "FaceSpace" on Law & Order sometimes.) Conan decided that he was gonna make the most of mentioning a fake website, so he had them pick up HornyManatee.com, and for the next several months/years, the show developed "Horny Manatee" bits to show on the website and on the air.
- tiernano 4y agoI got a phone number issued in ireland a few years back, dublin number, starting with 555... a lot of the time people think it's fake, but it's. Areal life number. Fun to give out, if someone is looking for a landline. Get some odd looks.
- aricz 4y agoSierra On-Line used 555-XXXX in many of their adventure games. I remember 555-6969 from Leisure Suit Larry 1 :)
- justanother 4y agoInteresting that '555-5555' is historically listed as 'IN DISPUTE'. It was well-known in the 1980s and 1990s that if you hit 0 to have an operator dial a call for you (for example to an ANI demo or other target known to use ANI), an ANI Failure would result and the output would be: area code + 555-5555.
- OliverJones 4y agoThe internet has this kind of stuff too. Addresses "reserved for documentation" by IANA / IETF. I don't remember seeing them mentioned on-screen. I guess it's easy enough to register ghostbusters (dot) info or whatever. example.com https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc2606/ https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc2606/ 192.0.2.55 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc5737/ https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc5737/ There must be layers upon layers of old special-case routing code in telco switches that makes it really hard to just start issuing those old 555 directory numbers to subscribers.