[knc1]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

In the US, the phone number 555-1212 in any areacode is guaranteed not to be in service so that it can be used in movies, TV shows, books, and apparently web page templates, without directing harassment to some hapless telephone user.

Originally Posted by PoP

@j.p.s Interesting, but only 555-0100 through 555-0199 are guaranteed fictitious. 555-1212 seems valid for national use directory assistance.

Once upon a time (in the USA, there was a national plan ...) <area code>+555-1212 was intended to be information (or dead - depended on carrier).

And then came along the Bell System divestiture ...
Followed by the need to use the full ten digits, which created a bunch of usable numbers by tossing the plan out of the window.

I was on one of the divestiture planning committees, BUT

I had nothing at all to do with the "throw baby out with bathwater" solution to changing the national numbering plan.
(I was hiding in a culvert, under a bridge, as far from any type of telephone service as I could get when that worthless idea was adopted.)