[HN Gopher] "555" and related telephone prefixes ___________________________________________________________________ "555" and related telephone prefixes Author : miles Score : 16 points Date : 2021-02-21 05:27 UTC (17 hours ago) (HTM) web link (computer.rip) (TXT) w3m dump (computer.rip) | reaperducer wrote: | 555 had another use. When I had service from Bell of | Pennsylvania, you could call 800-555-xxxx (I forget the last | four, but it wasn't 1212) to get connected to billing customer | service. | | The author also mentions the 500 area code. But he missed its use | by AT&T for roaming numbers (before "roaming" meant cellular). | | I had 500-674-9845. It could be programmed to ring you at | different phones at different times of the day. For example, it | could be set to forward all calls to your office Monday through | Friday 9am to 5pm, then to your club from 5pm to 7pm, and then to | your home from 7pm to 9am. | | It was very useful, but these were the days of the PBX wild west | when cost-reduced computers made poor quality PBX companies | attractive to small and medium-sized businesses. The list of | valid area codes and prefixes came in quarterly from your rep via | sneakernet. Two places I worked over two years didn't have very | good PBX vendors, so in both cases people at my work could not | call me on my 500 number. One boss became particularly irate | about not being able to reach me after hours. | Sniffnoy wrote: | He does talk about that use of 500s: | | > In 1993, NANP allocated the 500 NPA to Personal | Communications Service (PCS), not to be confused with Personal | Communications Service (PCS). ... [T]he former refers to... | EasyReach 700 all over again, except for now it's called True | Connections. | rachelbythebay wrote: | 1-700-555-4141 used to tell you who was set up as your primary | interexchange carrier. It might still if you're on a truly old- | school land line. | jcrawfordor wrote: | There's a slightly interesting history to this feature, which | should still work on a conventional land line. It was mandated | as a partial solution to a scam called "slamming," in which a | disreputable long-distance carrier would inform a customer's | local exchange carrier that they had 'requested' that their | default long distance carrier be changed... without their | knowledge. | | "Slamming" is not to be confused with "Cramming," another | common telephone billing scam of the post-breakup period, | because all of these got fun rhyming names. | rachelbythebay wrote: | Yup. PIC locks for the win. | | Also, it was neat to use the equal access codes to dial | around and see what numbers mapped to what carriers, and what | their "welcome to XYZ" recordings sounded like. | | Ah, being a kid and being bored. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-02-21 23:01 UTC)