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From: hansen@pegasus.att.com (Tony L Hansen)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: What are 700 and 555 Numbers?
Message-ID: <15296@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 6 Dec 90 03:44:00 GMT
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< [Moderator's Note: 555-1212 was simply adopted as a universal number
< for directory assistance, and to the best of my knowledge very little
< else has been assigned on 555. I think one AT&T business office uses
< something like 555-8111, but that is about all.  Other examples?

I've been told that whenever the film studios out in Hollywood want a
phone number for use in a movie, TV show or commercial, they go
through a special liason office with the phone company. (I think AT&T
used to run this, but it's probably done through BellCore now.) The
numbers which the studio receives are always 555-****, taken from a
special pool set aside for this purpose. I think that the liason
office even tries to recycle the number slowly enough so that they
won't seem to be the same too often. The next time that you see a
phone number given in a commercial or movie, it will almost certainly
be a 555 number.


Tony Hansen
att!pegasus!hansen, attmail!tony
hansen@pegasus.att.com