Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!att!pacbell!ames!xanth!ginosko!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!swbatl!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: msb@sq.sq.com (Mark Brader) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: 555-XXXX As A Valid Prefix Anywhere? Message-ID: Date: 1 Aug 89 21:49:27 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 27 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 280, message 7 of 7 > Lisa Smith (lisa@mips.com) wrote the following in an article in > (the Usenet newsgroup) rec.humor.d: > That prefix, 555, isn't fictional everywhere. One of my school friends > said that his grandfather's phone number, somewhere in South Dakota, is > a 555 number. He said that it was to his knowledge the only place in > the U.S. that it was a real prefix though. > Someone else said that if this was ever true it isn't now. > What do the experts say? > [Moderator's Note: On a hunch, after the first message on this topic > appeared, I tried dialing 701-555-various in North Dakota. Most > combinations other than '1212' were answered 'Northwestern Bell, may I help > you?' PT] Why did you try in NORTH Dakota? [Moderator's Note: No particular reason....just some at random dialing. I notice that Illinois Bell has quite a few numbers <>1212 plugged off now. F'rinstance, anyplace-555-8000, 555-7000 all go to immediate intercept. There are a few in the 'vicinity of' 1212 which wander off to the boondocks somewhere, as in the 701 example. -- Mark Brader, SoftQuad Inc., Toronto, utzoo!sq!msb, msb@sq.com "I'm a little worried about the bug-eater," she said. "We're embedded in bugs, have you noticed?" -- Niven, "The Integral Trees"