555 (telephone number)
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Telephone numbers with the prefix 555 are widely used for fictitious telephone numbers in North American television shows, films, computer games, and other media.
Not all numbers that begin with 555 are fictional—for example, 555-1212 is one of the standard numbers for directory assistance throughout the United States and Canada. In fact, only 555-0100 through 555-0199 are now specifically reserved for fictional use, with the other numbers having been released for actual assignment. How exactly this will intersect with the many uses of 555-2368 (one of the more commonly used fake numbers)[1] by AT&T and other telephone companies, remains unknown.
Area code 555 in the North American Numbering Plan is reserved for Directory Assistance applications.
Real uses of 555 numbers
Throughout North America, 1-XXX-555-1212 will connect to directory assistance for the specified XXX area code and 1-800-555-1111 will connect to a Bell Canada operator.
Although, in some areas of cellphone reception, 5-555-555-5555, a commonly used fictional number, is Nations' Tell in the Pacific Northwest and may reach a number that claims to be in ). This would mean that a consumer from any area code could dial a seven-digit number such as 555-TAXI, and the owners of that number could connect the call to a local car service. However, according to a 2003 New York Times article, the desired functionality requires the cooperation of local phone authorities, and most phone companies have been reluctant to cooperate.[2] Despite the fact that the service is virtually unavailable so far, most of the available 555 numbers have already been reserved.[3]
In addition, 555 use is only restricted in North America. Neglecting this fact resulted in a lawsuit in the late 1980s: in his daily The Far Side panel, cartoonist Gary Larson included a graffiti of a 555 number by which prank calls could be made to Satan. When the panel was printed in Australia (where 555 was at the time a standard exchange), the owner of the 555 number became the subject of much harassment, and sued Larson and his syndicate for defamation. The suit was unsuccessful.[4]
The controversy over these numbers was mentioned in the 1993 action film The Last Action Hero, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, when the character Danny Madigan, portrayed by Austin O'Brien, tries to convince Schwarzenegger's character that he is in fact inside a movie by pointing out the claim that 555 numbers, which everyone used here, give at most 9,999 possible permutations, not enough to satisfy all necessary phone users in the country. In reality though, it would supply a total of ten thousand permutations, from 0000 through 9999. Regardless of this technical oversight in the script, Arnold Schwarzenegger's character retorts that area codes would solve that dilemma. Austin O'Brien's character then drops the subject, though he could have continued the argument that the number of valid areacodes at that time still would have only supported a few million numbers and that still wouldn't be sufficient.
555 is also a common prefix in the municipality of Hafnarfjörður, Iceland.
See also
Similar recurring uses:
- 2GAT123 - fictitious license plate number
- Acme Corporation - fictitious company 'that makes everything'
- Channel 37 - fictitious TV station
- Heisler Beer - fictitious beer brand used in television and films
- Hobbs End - a fictitious location used in several films
- Morley - fictitious cigarette brand used in television and films
- Oceanic Airlines - fictitious airline used in television and films
- Red Apple Cigarettes - fictitious cigarette brand in Quentin Tarantino films
References
- ^ "555-2000". Retrieved 2008-04-16.
- ^ Biederman, Marcia. "Personal 555 Number Is Still Mostly Fiction", The New York Times, February 6, 2003. Accessed September 10, 2008.
- ^ NANP Administration System
- ^ "Laughter and Litigation". Radio National. 27 March 2001. Retrieved 2009-04-21.
Further reading
- Personal 555 Number Is Still Mostly Fiction
- Why doesn't the phone company use the "555" prefix?
- TV Acres Compilation of 555 numbers in movies