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Every 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.
Every 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.
2000s were a different time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This 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
Well, 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.
Related: Here’s a number many wish they didn’t have. 867-5309 [0] [0] https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/867-5309-jenny/
What 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.
Every 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.
What about a cut? A camera zoom? A title screen? Sub-titles? I am intrigued about how you experience films.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, 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.
But there is nothing different about 555 numbers than any other, and Verizon certainly doesn’t charge $2500 for a normal number.
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But there is nothing different about 555 numbers than any other, and Verizon certainly doesn’t charge $2500 for a normal number.
The 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 calli…
Very 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.
Likely because large movies were already willing to pay for such... I've never tried to call a 555 num from a movie because it was "common knowledge" that they were fake... I had NO idea that you could actually call one....