Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Why there aren't any '800' numbers available

I have tried very hard not to say anything about Primetel for a while. And I'm not going to say anything about them except to point out what they're doing a little. Whether it's good or fair is up to you.

Unfortunately there aren't usually any "800" numbers in the pool right now. I did an experiment though and took some reservations for '800' numbers that were over 30 days old and which were going to expire soon any way. They were just totally random 800 numbers with zeros and ones and they didn't spell anything. I changed them from reserved to spare and then tried to re-reserve them. They were already reserved in less than a second. I tried this at several times throughout the day just to make sure it wasn't just a coincidence.

It was too fast and consistent to be a human initiated search and it was always taken by the same people. It wasn't like AT&T or MCI was getting some of them too. They are using an automated system to constantly request ANY '800' number. I will continue to test this on other days just for the heck of it and I'll post the history of the numbers here to show the timing too.

The ability and process necessary to do that is impressive, as well as their willingness to do that so blatantly. Much to their surprise I'm really not against them in general. I look at them as the DeBeers organization of the toll free business. In some ways they make customers need me and my service more. And I'm also afraid that whatever actions are taken against them will also hurt the entire industry. So I'm not pushing for or encouraging anything. I'm just posting this here so that people can understand a little what is happening.

Don't trash them here. I will remove any over the top comments. That's not the purpose of this and it won't help you or anyone really.

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