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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?"
Great, now I can prank call the winnning bidder...
...
...
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
I think the general "gee-whiz" factor of owning 867-5309 would wear off really quickly. I know I called this number in the past, how many other people did too? I think the guy that is selling this is making a nice penny on his past headaches.
Mike
My cell phone number is (XXX) U-OWE-HIM.
I won't give out the area code of course. But it is the area code for a major city.
Should I sell it? Seems like a quick way to get the extra cash.
Whatcha think slashdotians?
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
Who wants to buy 3-14-159-265?
Unpretentious Sydney reviews by unqualified Sydney reviewers
Who's trying to sell my phone number...again?
The Yasashii Syndicate ||
Which spells BUT-FUCK. Please, don't ask me why I know this.
Of course, all that superstition I don't go for. Can anyone sell me 420-4242? ;)
666-6666. My guess, however, is that Microsoft just won't give it up!
You'll have to be a *real* nerd to actually buy a "famous" phone number!
/. there for a while ;)
ohh... wait... forgot I was on
No, i don't like sigs...
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.
Here's the Clicky
It is odd how people have become acclimated to the belief that they own their phone number. Back in the day (in the 80s) I had lost a phone number when a local business wanted it. The phone company explained clearly in their legal text (which was in the phone book) that you don't own the number, and can lose it at any time.
Do phone numbers really matter all that much? I used to know all my friends' phone numbers by memory. Now, speed dial makes it worthless.
If someone changes their number, they e-mail me, I save it to my contacts list, and when I sync my phone the new phone number is there. I don't think I call more than 1 person a day from my phone without using the contact list. I use over 3000 minutes a month from my cell phone, so that's around 9-10 people a day I call without knowing their number.
For a business, having a cool number that spells something or references the business in a memorable way makes sense only when you need to get people to call you after seeing an advertisement. Once you regularly call someone, you probably won't recall that number, even if its something great like 4-DADA-21.
I know I don't own my phone number. I also know I'll be paying more on my cell phone bill so that others can keep their numbers. I've switched cell phone numbers probably 4 times in 8 years, and never really lost contact with anyone.
If people matter to me, they know more than my phone number. They have my e-mail address, they have my home address, they can contact me through other friends. If I lost my number today, I'd be hampered for maybe 2 days and then it would be business as usual.
I'd rather not pay for this feature so others can "protect their private property."
There is a web-tool for finding out what words you can make with a phone-number using the letters that appear next to each number - http://mmm.mbhs.edu/~bconnell/phoneagrams.html
Why use eBay? Just call the guy.
TK
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.
I called the number and there was no Jenny there. - Just some guy calling me an asshole for calling him at 3am...
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
xxx-9333 (weed)
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.
515-382-5968.
For those too lazy to find a phoneagram script, their number equates to 515-FUC-KYOU.
I searched Google but couldn't come up with any other real examples of 382-5968. I would imagine most telcos know about it and don't assign the number, I'm surprised someone managed to actually get it in Iowa.
Here in RI in area code 401, a plumbing service owns
the number, and advertises it on the radio, and even
sings a bit of the jenny song.
I wonder if they had to dish out the $$ for it or
if they simply requested it from thier phone company.
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
Can a phone number be slashdotted? :) I think we're about to find out!
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.
From Mitch's standup:
If I got to pick my phone number, it would be 222-2222. That way when people ask me for my number, I could just say 'press two for a while'. I wouldn't answer the phone, 'hello,' I'd answer it 'stop!'
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?
555 numbers are already assignable. Check out the 555 master list for the numbers currently in use.
Don't stress it ... you're going to get blank stares from the AT&T salespeople no mater what you ask them. I'd call 212-867-5309 in a week or two and ask them how it worked ... and if it worked.
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
RIP Bon Scott. Ride on, ride on...
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
Here in the Netherlands, you can always call the local police station by dailing 0900-8844, which spells 0900-TUIG.
Tuig means scum in dutch.
For those of us who are too lazy to figure it out, here's a site that tells you what a phone number spells.
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...
the "xxx" was 420, then it would be the perfect endo-phone number.
pi = 3.141592653589793helpimtrappedinauniversefactory7
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.
"36-24-36"
She sounds hot! What's her name?
Putting the romance back into necromancer.
If you dialed an AC, the telco switching system knew it, so you didn't have to dial the AC on a LD call within the same AC as your phone.
But about 10 years ago, the phone companies were running out of area codes, and they changed the system. Now both area codes and exchanges are [2-9][0-9][0-9] (with certain special exceptions such as x11, x00, and 8xx). It's no longer possible for the telco to know that it's an AC instead of an exchange most of the time. So, in places where two or more ACs are local calls, the other ACs can't be used as exchanges (here in KC, the MO side is 816 and KS is 913, so there will never be an 816-913 or 913-816 nunber in the local calling area) nor should an AC contain an exchange with its own number (no 816-816 or 913-913).
We've had 888-* numbers here long before there was an 888 AC.
[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
1-900-867-5307.
Sure, I'll answer it all freakin' day long. For a modest charge of $24.95 per call.
Gawd, I'm such a geek :)
Brak: What's THAT?
Thundercleese: A light switch.. of TOTAL DEVASTATION!
Owning the number would be more useful for a small-medium business. There is a service company in my area that has xxx-867-5309 and they can put it in their commercials knowing that people will remember it. For a business this is a very valuable thing.
Ya know, this number's gonna be phone-bombed like mad, and for $14,000 (current bid as of this posting)? I can only think of ONE BUSINESS that would want this many calls...
Phone-sex hotline.
"That's right, for a good time, you can FINALLY call Jenny at 867-5309!"
I am going to call the number a few days after the auction is over and ask whomever answers WHY???? At this rate the person will be paying the equivalent of a year's salary for an entry level support person. I suggest that everyone call once and say hi. It isn't a prank if you actually intend to have a semi-intelligent converstation...
"What we do in life echoes in eternity." Maximus Decimus Meridius
Give phonespell your number and it will give you all the word combinations in your number.
36-24-36? Only if she's 5'3".
http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/8675309.htm
clickey
.sig
Claim: The Tommy Tutone song "Jenny (867-5309)" drove the phone companies (and their customers) nuts.
Status: True.
Origins: The
1980s produced a number of one-hit wonders, including the infamous Tommy Tutone and its 1982 hit song "Jenny (867-5309)." This San Francisco band led by Tommy Heath and Jim Keller doesn't appear to have made much of a mark on the music world, and it likely wouldn't now be remembered were it not for the furor raised by its use of a phone number in its one memorable song.
In "Jenny," a young man laments not having the courage to dial a number found scribbled on a wall but finds some comfort in the notion that he can someday call this girl and sweep her off her feet. Though not explicitly stated in the lyrics, it's strongly implied the name and number were harvested from a bathroom wall, which also implies "Jenny" is a gal of easy virtue and is to be had for the price of a phone call.
"Jenny (867-5309)" caused nothing but grief for telephone customers unlucky enough to have that combination of numbers as their own. Its relentless chorus, "Jenny don't change your number - eight six seven five three oh nah-eeh-ah-ine," pounded the phone number into the minds of teenagers everywhere, resulting in waves of kids dialing it and asking for Jenny. The joke quickly became old for those who had the number and weren't interested in talking to horny teens.
Even as recently as 1999, phone customers unlucky enough to have been assigned an 867-5309 number were still getting plenty of crank calls. An article from Brown University's newspaper explained what happened when the school added an 867 exchange in the fall of 1999:
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.
"It's so annoying," Nina said. "It's the worst number to have in the world."
The girls receive an average of five "stupid" messages every day on their machine, in addition to a slew of hang-ups.
"It's as if they are really expecting Jenny to pick up the phone," Clemente said.
Unfortunately, the problem is not getting better, and people just keep calling. Some ask for Jenny, some play the Tommy Tutone song on the girls' answering machine, and some males even leave their phone numbers in hopes of finding a date.
Whether there was a real Jenny with that very phone number is debatable. Those who attempt to dial 867-5309 on a touch-tone phone will quickly discover that this seemingly random combination of seven digits forms a consistent pattern as tapped out on the pad. The upward diagonal of "8-6" is followed by "7-5-3," the upward diagonal to the left of it, which in turn is followed by "0-9," yet another upward diagonal, this one to the right of the original starting sequence.
The song gave rise to its own lore, which asserted that the "Jenny" in the song was the lead singer's real-life girlfriend (or ex-girlfriend):
[Collected on the Internet, 2000]
I heard a more elaborate story that the number actually belonged to one of the band member's ex-girlfriends (named Jenny, of course) and that he wrote the song to get back at her for dumping him. She supposedly got a restraining order taken out against him and won a court order to have the song pulled from the airwaves for a while, etc. etc.
Other explanations leave off her suing the songwriter but have her becoming angry with him and changing her number (which, ironically, is the one thing the song begged her not to do). In another flavor of the tale, the band is sued by a sheriff who had both a daughter named Jenny and the notorious 867-5309 as his home number.
"Jenny" has had a breath of new life breathed into it by the Goo Goo Dolls, a popular band who debuted in 1987 but only began to hit their stride in 1998. Though they've yet to record a cover of "Jenny," the Goo Goo Dolls have often included a rendition of it in club ap
Exchange Names, where words such as PENnsylvania and PEnnsylvania-6 stand for the number 736 were common from about 1900 to about the late 1950's. NYC's PEnnsylvania-6 = 736, and BUtterfield-8 = 288 were both made famous by songs, literature and movies.
It is hard to find on the web good information about these custom Exchange Names in each areacode, except for this website's database. In 1955, MaBell created a simplified list.
Mac Refugee, Paper MCSE, Linux Wannabe
My phone number at the time was an anagram of 867-5309. It was 537-0869. I only got prank calls from dyslexic people.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
http://atlanta.about.com/cs/artsentertainment/a/go dsnumber.htm
Anybody seen the movie Bruce Almighty? In it, Jim Carrey gets repeatedly paged by God (with the number, not a 555 number for once, appearing on the screen). In the weeks following the release of the movie, people all over the nation got calls from Americans wanting to talk to God - including in Georgia, where callers got a church.
- The grade school cafeteria. Too much fun to be had with that.
- An ex-girlfriend. Her family had fun and set up a cool answering machine greeting.
- A girlfriend of my ex-girlfriend. They just got pissed off.
- Last I heard, some elderly couple, who are undoubtedly quite puzzled by now if they still have the number.
I play guitar, and someday I would really like to cover this song in my band as an inside joke. It would be especially cool if the ex-girlfriend just happened to be in the audience.Somebody call 405-867-5309 and see who has the number now.
Washington, DC: It's like Hollywood for ugly people.