The 555 telephone exchange in movies/TV

Factual Questions
1

What’s with the continued use of the fictitious “555” exchange in television and movies. For all their attempts at realism, it’s comical to listen to a character identify her phone number as 555-xxxx, or, even funnier, KL5-xxxx (It’s been a long time since exchanges were associated with a word - although I kinda like the sound of KLondike 5-xxxx).

So, is this a regulatory issue, or a voluntary decision? And if so, how did Tommy Tutone get away with the classic song “867-5309 (Jenny)”?

I anticipate replies suggesting that it is a voluntary decision to avoid lawsuits. It seems to me, however, that if using a phone number that may be a working number is a problem, then naming a character who is physcopathic murderer “John Smith” should also be a problem.

2

As I suggested in another thread, TV writers should come up with ficticious area codes rather that use 555 since we are using 10-digit numbers more and more anyway.

As for Tommy Tutone, he tells of all the people around the country who had 867-5309 and were enraged at all the crank calls they got. They wanted to get his number and publish it so he’d know what it felt like.

3

In the words of Cecil www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_374a.html

4

We talked about this before. A few people told me that 555 numbers are actual numbers now.

5

Since Ma Bell has croaked, do any of the Baby Bells (or offshoots thereof) use the 555 prefix?

6

I knew that 555-numbers exist in the 800 area code (Canada Direct is 800-555-1111 from the USA, for instance) but I’m not sure about the other tollfree area codes (888, 877, 866, and soon 855). But I thought that they were only used in tollfree area codes.

However, after digging through the North American Numbering Plan Administration’s numbering-resource pages (look for “555-NXX Codes” on the NANPA site), I followed links to the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, and found the following Microsoft Word document, 555 NXX Assignment Guidelines.

It “specifies guidelines for the assignment of line numbers within the 555 NXX [exchange] code, hereafter referred to as ‘555 numbers’ within [the] guidelines. The intended use for 555 numbers for which these guidelines apply include the provisioning of information services but may include a broad range of existing and future services as well.” and “These guidelines apply only to the assignment of 555 numbers in geographic NPAs [area codes].”

So it looks like we can now have “<area code>+555+<four digits>” as a valid phone number. But it would belong to some “information provider”; 555-numbers presumably would not be issued to residences.

There’s a lot more in the documant about getting “national” versus “local” 555-number assignments: ways to reserve the same four digits after 555 in a number of different area codes. How many companies actually use these numbers, and how they bill for their “information services”, is another question.

However, going down through the document, I find Section 4.6:

“A block of one hundred (100) 555 line numbers will be reserved as fictitious non-working numbers for use by the entertainment and advertising industries. These specific numbers are 555-01XX, i.e., numbers between and including 555-0100 and 555-0199.” (italics mine)

So there you are. Just make sure that your fictitious phone number is between 555-0100 and 555-0199 inclusive, in any area code, and it will never work. :slight_smile:

On the other hand, area code 555 is ‘unassignable due to conflict’, at least according to Area-code Info code lists. So maybe you could use it.

7

Try this: dial 1 (XXX) 555 1212, where XXX is any area code besides the one you are in. I think the concept of “information services”, who provides them and how they charge for them will become clear.