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Portable Phone Numbers = Market for Cool Numbers
goombah99 writes "The New phone number rules that allow you to keep your phone number when you switch carriers has given rise to phone nascent number property rights. On E-bay you can bid on 867-5309 (made famous by Tommy Tutone's Jenny I got your number). As I write this the bid is over $8000 dollars with seven days to go. What other numbers are famous or valuable? Will we see a land rush like the internet names?"
...
...
Pick up the phone
I'm always home
Call me any time
Just ring
3624368
I lead a life of crime
All the worlds indeed a
If it actually works, this is a brilliant idea, and it's certainly harder to squat on phone numbers than domain names.
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow. - Cmdr. Susan Ivanova
In China this has been around for years. Chinese numerology gives great value to number 8. See for instance "A special phone number, 88888888, was auctioned Monday in this capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, for 2.33 million yuan (about 280,723 US dollars)." In Hong Kong there's a premium on lucky phone numbers and you can buy and sell them, the mobile phone companies usually have a board outside with lists of auspicious numbers available.
I don't know if this is a valid number at all (me being Norwegian, and we employ 8-digit numbers...)
Anyway, my favorite would be 666-1337. What? You figured? Never!
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
Here in Norway we got number portability a couple of years back. For a couple of weeks the newspapers were filled with stories of numbers going for outragous prizes. There were even specialized web sites where one could auction cell phone numbers. A couple of months later, everyone sobered and the market dried up. The whole thing was even sillier than the domain name market in the dot com era.
If this catches on as much as RealNames did, you'll all of a sudden need to be a millionaire to get a cellphone.
And then your cellphone will die.
We've had this for a long time in Norway, and yes, give it a year or two and this will all die. Hopefully, at least it did over here.
Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
Get out your tin foil hats!
The government is going to make your phone number the publically acceptable, accessable replacement for your SSN. You will be assigned a number at birth, it will always be yours, you can get others, but this one is for life. There won't be any legal restrictions on using it as a ID like your SSN, the only protection you get is the do not call list.
Far fetched conspiracy theorys aside, anyone care to speculate on the possible pros and cons of such a scheme?
-- The morphemes of your disquisition are ascertainable, but they have eschewed an ambit of transpicuous exposition.
I doubt there is a 666 area code, people would freak out.
The unofficial
Here are the lyrics,...
Jenny, Jenny who can I turn to
You give me something I can hold on to
I know you'll think I'm like the others before
Who saw your name and number on the wall
Jenny I've got your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny don't change your number
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
Jenny, Jenny you're the girl for me
You don't know me but you make me so happy
I tried to call you before
But I lost my nerve
I tried my imagination
But I was disturbed
Jenny I've got your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny don't change your number
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
I got it (I got it), I got it
I got your number on the wall
I got it (I got it), I got it
For a good time call
Jenny don't change your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny I've got your number
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
Solo
Jenny don't change your number
I need to make you mine
Jenny I call your number
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
Next two lines sung over
background refrain of "867-5309"
Jenny, Jenny who can I turn to
For the price of a dime
I can always turn to you
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
8 6 7-5 3 0 9 (8 6 7-5 3 0 9)
Fade out repeating "5309"
Lead Singer Tommy Heath actually grew up in Texas, Montana and spent some time in Japan.
He is though, a software engineer
My company owns a block of 1000 phone numbers, and I've always wanted to get a number that spelled something either related to our department or an acronym which would be easy for clients to remember. But I can't find anything on the internet which helps you make words out of phone numbers. I would need to find a search engine or program that would accept an input like 345-555-6??? and spit out all the possible combinations that make words our of 4 digits, 7 digits, or 10 digits.
Has anyone run across a program or a website that could help?
Jenny lived in Bay Area in the 415 area code at the time of the record.
An AD company in SF has the TRUE number.
Lets say someone has the phone number 8005551212 and they're a Voicestream/T-Mobile customer. To email them a text message you'd email 8005551212@voicestream.net.
Since I presume phone numbers are allocated about the same way IP addresses are (in blocks), to make a phone number that was assigned to T-Mobile ring for Sprint, T-Mobile must forward the call somehow. Does this mean T-Mobile also forwards text messages?
That is, would 8005551212@messaging.sprintpcs.com work? Or would you still have to send to 8005551212@voicestream.net because it's T-Mobile's job to forward it?
There IS a local exchange (aka, the x portion of xxx-yyyy) of 666 for some areas of Michigan. I recall being surprised to see it instituted. I knew someone with a cell phone number including it.
--- Matthew Hill
"To quote the self is an act of the self riteous and uninitiated sub-moronic" - Matthew Hill
There is also a 666 exchange in Oaks, PA.
If you need some good loving Call on me
And if you need some good hugging Call on me baby
I'll be right here at home
All you gotta do is pick up the telephone and dial now
Six three four five seven eight nine
That's my number
Six three four five seven eight nine
I remember reading in Wired that Steve Wozniak got the number 888-888-8888 when the 800 numbers switched over to 888.
He found the number unusable because he got tons of wrong numbers from small children -- who seemed to have a habit of pressing the 8 key repeatedly...
It's realy not that hard to do. Step A get a cell on the same carrier and account, swap numbers change billing info your done. I have done this with Nextel to keep my number when moving off a corp account to a personal one. The Corp did end up with a new number but it wasent on contract (that stayed with the phone) so they were free to cancel it. It's generaly realy easy to swap numbers on phone on the same account as well as move a single phone to another account with it's number. Course this may just be Nextel they are used to deeling with business more than personal it seems at least to me.
No sir I dont like it.
In Denver, the two major cab companies' numbers are 333-3333, and 777-7777. Totally makes it useful at 2 AM when you are trying to get a cab and can't think straight. Super easy to remember.
Mark
And IANA has reservered 86.75.30.9 so that doesn't help us either.
--C