MKL@SRI-NIC.ARPA.UUCP (07/17/86)
Pacific Bell will start offering personalized phone numbers. It will be $10 to get and $1.50 a month. No further details, I just heard it on the news.
chris@COLUMBIA.EDU (Chris Maio) (07/22/86)
Those "vanity numbers" sound like the user just gets to specify their own phone number; New York Telephone provides this for free, including searching for an unallocated phone number based on simple criteria (e.g. for my two home phones, I specified the last 4 digits and they found two exchanges where those numbers weren't in use). I'd imagine that such searches require almost no effort, so charging for that kind of non-service seems pretty slimy; I wonder how they justify the monthly fee? Chris P.S. One thing to watch out for is what the number was used for in the past, and why it isn't in use: it would be pretty annoying to pay extra for a vanity number and wind up with a number that's etched into the wall in a men's room somewhere, or very close to a radio station's phone-in contest line. [Pacific Bell has to-date been willing to check number availability, although only about 10% of "disconnected" numbers have ever been available when I've requested them. Unfortunately, I'm afraid, this service will only heighten demand for "vanity" numbers, now that the public will KNOW they can have them. -Elmo]