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Writer's Block: AKA
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I've always been something of a telco geek, including, back then, knowing all the prefixes that went with each central office.
Mid-1980s: I was moving to a new place on Fort Worth's west side and called SWBell to arrange phone service. The representative rattled off the new number, "377-something."
"377?," I asked. "Is that a new exchange?" "Yes," she answered. "Umm, are the last 4 digits 2327 (BEAR) available?"... "Great, I'll take them.
Thus I started with 377-BEAR, handy since US Hwy 377 ran nearby.
About a year and a half later, I was moving closer to downtown, next to the museum district, to be closer to the teaching hospital where I worked. Being the same central office, I got to keep the same phone number. But the association with HWY 377 no longer fit.
So, one afternoon, taking a break from a Numerical Analysis take-home final, I started playing to see if the letters associated with 377 spelled anything. WOO-HOO!
EUREKA!!! I now had FRR-BEAR for a phone number. (That's where the double-R comes from.)
It was also handy at the bar: "Heh... that's cute FRR-BEAR." "Yeah, all that's missing is U." Granted it was a corny pickup line, but it was very successful; guys remembered the number, and more importantly, called for dates. Damn I miss that house: enclosed patio and hot tub, huge kitchen large enough for 6 cooks,...
Fwd to the '90s: Moved. No longer had that number, but the nickname with the bears and the rodeo crowd stuck, so the online moniker "FurrBear" fit.
FRR-BEAR lives on as vanity car tags in both CA and TX.
I've always been something of a telco geek, including, back then, knowing all the prefixes that went with each central office.
Mid-1980s: I was moving to a new place on Fort Worth's west side and called SWBell to arrange phone service. The representative rattled off the new number, "377-something."
"377?," I asked. "Is that a new exchange?" "Yes," she answered. "Umm, are the last 4 digits 2327 (BEAR) available?"... "Great, I'll take them.
Thus I started with 377-BEAR, handy since US Hwy 377 ran nearby.
About a year and a half later, I was moving closer to downtown, next to the museum district, to be closer to the teaching hospital where I worked. Being the same central office, I got to keep the same phone number. But the association with HWY 377 no longer fit.
So, one afternoon, taking a break from a Numerical Analysis take-home final, I started playing to see if the letters associated with 377 spelled anything. WOO-HOO!
EUREKA!!! I now had FRR-BEAR for a phone number. (That's where the double-R comes from.)
It was also handy at the bar: "Heh... that's cute FRR-BEAR." "Yeah, all that's missing is U." Granted it was a corny pickup line, but it was very successful; guys remembered the number, and more importantly, called for dates. Damn I miss that house: enclosed patio and hot tub, huge kitchen large enough for 6 cooks,...
Fwd to the '90s: Moved. No longer had that number, but the nickname with the bears and the rodeo crowd stuck, so the online moniker "FurrBear" fit.
FRR-BEAR lives on as vanity car tags in both CA and TX.
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When the "888' toll-free area code was opened up, Bell Canada had a big promotion, offering to waive the set-up fees and offering an insane pricing plan (which they apparently forgot for about a decade, and only recently modified to something more profitable for them).
So, for just about all the time since I've been in Canada, I've been reachable toll-free at 1-888-4TEDDYB.
I am currently traveling in the US, and I just discovered some routing issues. When I tried to reach my home phone (which allows me to dial back out, giving me really, really cheap long distance service from payphones when I'm on the road), I discovered that some AT&T switches don't route the call properly, and I get an intercept message that the "number dialed is not reachable from your calling area". But phone switches in the local Orlando calling area route the call with no problem.
I'll have to check it out with Bell Canada when I get home.
I love having the toll-free number, since it means I have the option to port the number to whatever telephone service provider I use no matter where I go in North America.
My local number in Toronto is sort of flexible in that way, too. Long before the days of local number portability, I started using a Single Number Reach number that was independent of the restrictions of being tied to a specific local exchange. All SNR (then called PrimeLine) numbers had a special prefix, 410, and it could be terminated at any local line in the Greater Toronto Area. Since I set up my line when PrimeLine as launched, I was able to get 410-4BOB. I've had that number for almost 20 years, despite having moved dozens of times, including periods when I lived in the "905" area code, but still had a local number with a "416" area code attached to it.
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has fun with telephone numbers.
North America
I take North America to mean the US and Canada, and not the other 30-odd countries that make up the continent.
Chuck
Re: North America
NANP's Numbering Plan Assignment (NPA) is known by consumers as an 'area code'.
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