Apparently, you can still get a phone number with a 416 area code

[farquhar]

I just activated a Prepaid Cell on Bell; if you are not Porting In a number from another carrier, you are asked to select a City; and then the system randomly generates 5 numbers you can choose from with local area codes.

I was shocked that I actually had the option of a (416) area code. I had thought those numbers were all exhausted....someone must have cancelled their service and forfeited the number; after 90 days I think the Mobile carrier will just put the number back in the "pool" of available numbers.

I have heard that people will actually pay money for a (416) number....is this true? And how much is a (416) number worth??

 

[G.D. Gentleman]

I just activated a Prepaid Cell on Bell; if you are not Porting In a number from another carrier, you are asked to select a City; and then the system randomly generates 5 numbers you can choose from with local area codes.

I was shocked that I actually had the option of a (416) area code. I had thought those numbers were all exhausted....someone must have cancelled their service and forfeited the number; after 90 days I think the Mobile carrier will just put the number back in the "pool" of available numbers.

I have heard that people will actually pay money for a (416) number....is this true? And how much is a (416) number worth??

Never heard of anyone paying extra for a 416 number.

Have heard of stories from those who pick up a 416 number...only to find out it was used by a business for decades that went bankrupt and had clients and creditors calling it (now active as a personal cell phone) for the first while...and the creditors for a longer while after.

Might want to google search your new number to see if it comes up anywhere since it's been around for so long, even just for fun.

 

[farquhar]

Have heard of stories from those who pick up a 416 number...only to find out it was used by a business for decades that went bankrupt and had clients and creditors calling it (now active as a personal cell phone) for the first while...and the creditors for a longer while after.

Might want to google search your new number to see if it comes up anywhere since it's been around for so long, even just for fun.

You don't say? Well, considering the economic clusterfuck we find ourselves in, perhaps some more 416 numbers will be coming available soon.

 

[G.D. Gentleman]

You don't say? Well, considering the economic clusterfuck we find ourselves in, perhaps some more 416 numbers will be coming available soon.

Same goes for mailing addresses. A previous tenant (rental) or owner of a home falls offside with a creditor, say a bank or car loan, and never updated their address with the creditor...so the creditor starts sending scare mail to that address.

My sister bought a condo 4 years ago...and there is a bank still sending mail like this to her address for a guy who lived there previously. She's called the bank and tried to get them to stop/find him at his current address or number...but nope...still gets the mail. Problem is the bank is one of her primary banks and she likes them so she gets legit mail from them for her. I told her to go full paperless with that bank to then at least know if it came in the mail, it's likely not for her...see if that works.

 

[farquhar]

Same goes for mailing addresses. A previous tenant (rental) or owner of a home falls offside with a creditor, say a bank or car loan, and never updated their address with the creditor...so the creditor starts sending scare mail to that address.

My sister bought a condo 4 years ago...and there is a bank still sending mail like this to her address for a guy who lived there previously. She's called the bank and tried to get them to stop/find him at his current address or number...but nope...still gets the mail. Problem is the bank is one of her primary banks and she likes them so she gets legit mail from them for her. I told her to go full paperless with that bank to then at least know if it came in the mail, it's likely not for her...see if that works.

Toronto’s 416 area codes selling for hundreds, even thousands

Landing the city’s oldest area code is usually the luck of the draw, but some businesses are willing to spend big to contribute to an image of reliability.

www.thestar.com

Toronto’s most coveted area code is becoming a business in the city, with 10-digit 416 numbers selling for hundreds — even thousands — of dollars.

“All my advertisements are in the Yonge and Finch area, and in the North York papers, so 416 targets my clientele,” says Reza Esmaeili, a local residential and commercial real estate broker with Homelife/Victory Realty, who purchased his current phone number, 416-888-SOLD, for $500.

The 416 tells his customers he’s established, Esmaeili adds....

Being perceived as established is a common desire among customers looking to buy 416 numbers, said Georgios Pappas, a phone number vendor behind websites like vip416numbers.com and 416numbers.com

“They feel that a 647 number makes them feel like they’re not established. Let’s say you need a lawyer. If you call a 647 number, how credible is that lawyer, how many years has he been in business for?”

Pappas searches for creative 416 numbers through various carriers in the city. Once he is assigned a number, he makes the minimum payments on the account each month until someone buys the number from him. He then transfers responsibility of the account to the new owner.

Pappas charges a minimum of $99, but has previously sold the 10 digits for as much as $2,000.

EDIT: Apparently Georgios guarantees that his 416 numbers are "clean" and not a 90 day re-assign, where you get the non-stop Collections calls.

 

[jelly baby]

Don't get 416.

Big Vito will come for you.

Kapish.

 

[xmontrealer]

I recently got a Roger's phone with a 437 area code. Is that common now

 

[farquhar]

I recently got a Roger's phone with a 437 area code. Is that common now

On March 5, 2001, 416 was overlaid with area code 647, Canada's first overlay code. The implementation of 647 made ten-digit dialling mandatory in Toronto. However, within a decade, both 416 and 647 were close to exhaustion. A new overlay area code, 437, commenced operation on March 25, 2013.[6][7] This effectively allocates 24 million numbers to one city of 2.5 million people, but area code 387 and area code 942 have been reserved for Toronto's future use.[6] However, it is not expected that it will be needed until 2025.[8]

Area codes 416, 647, and 437 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[G.D. Gentleman]

Toronto’s 416 area codes selling for hundreds, even thousands

Landing the city’s oldest area code is usually the luck of the draw, but some businesses are willing to spend big to contribute to an image of reliability.

www.thestar.com

Toronto’s most coveted area code is becoming a business in the city, with 10-digit 416 numbers selling for hundreds — even thousands — of dollars.

“All my advertisements are in the Yonge and Finch area, and in the North York papers, so 416 targets my clientele,” says Reza Esmaeili, a local residential and commercial real estate broker with Homelife/Victory Realty, who purchased his current phone number, 416-888-SOLD, for $500.

The 416 tells his customers he’s established, Esmaeili adds....

Being perceived as established is a common desire among customers looking to buy 416 numbers, said Georgios Pappas, a phone number vendor behind websites like vip416numbers.com and 416numbers.com

“They feel that a 647 number makes them feel like they’re not established. Let’s say you need a lawyer. If you call a 647 number, how credible is that lawyer, how many years has he been in business for?”

Pappas searches for creative 416 numbers through various carriers in the city. Once he is assigned a number, he makes the minimum payments on the account each month until someone buys the number from him. He then transfers responsibility of the account to the new owner.

Pappas charges a minimum of $99, but has previously sold the 10 digits for as much as $2,000.

EDIT: Apparently Georgios guarantees that his 416 numbers are "clean" and not a 90 day re-assign, where you get the non-stop Collections calls.

Interesting. The article is however from 2014?

A lot has changed in 6 years. Canada wide roaming cell plans for well under $80 a month. Digital searches for company websites, email contact information, etc.

Explosion of VoIP use, in business especially, also may have changed perception of the value of phone numbers.

Maybe a search about 416 area code in 2020 might turn up current results?

 

[snowdon]

My 647 number right now used to be a Chinese Restaurant that the CRA keeps trying to contact -.-

 

[ExoticCharmer]

416-888-SOLD, for $500.

It's only vanity numbers that have value but the market for vanity numbers is similar to domain names. People will only pay up to some arbitrary sum before looking for an cheaper alternative.

If you have a 416 number and you can somehow fit a word/term/slogan into your 7 digits then that may have some value to the right person.

Explosion of VoIP use, in business especially, also may have changed perception of the value of phone numbers.

800 Vanity numbers still have value and/or cost a lot to acquire due to new/existing businesses bidding them up.

 

[Darts]

Do you guys with 416 area code ever get calls meant for a 415 area code?

"Today, the 415 area code and its overlay area code 628 serve the greater San Francisco Bay area, including the City and County of San Francisco, the majority of Marin County and a small portion of San Mateo County.Dec 14, 2014"

BTW: The founder of Marin bikes named his bikes after Marin County.

 

[Darts]

Explosion of VoIP use, in business especially, also may have changed perception of the value of phone numbers.

Does VOIP work the same as a real line line?

 

[G.D. Gentleman]

Does VOIP work the same as a real line line?

Yes. While the interaction with the end user (the human) is an application on an existing cell phone or a laptop/desktop computer, the connection is still routed to a server/server farm somewhere and there it onboards to the providers phone network to route the call to the destination number being dialed.

A good example of a personal use VOIP provider I have mentioned before and still recommend is Fongo - www.fongo.com

-Gives you a reachable Ontario number for the city of your choice.
-Works well over cellular data while you're travelling, even 3G if your signal is decent. Of course ideally use it over WiFi.
-Text/SMS works as well - only restriction I think is cannot receive photos via text, but can send - little rusty on this.

For me there was an expensive lesson learned that lead me to Fongo was not actually this lifestyle, wanting a burner number - mind you I did start using it when I was still contacting Indy's off BP/LL before going to mostly/only agencies.

I was travelling internationally quite a bit. I would add the $6-12/day 'roam like home' service to my Bell Cellular service and I was all good, right?

Well...a lot of 1-800 numbers used for conference call services are 'Toll Free' when calling within Canada, even though they 'route' to somewhere in Asia....but when you call one of those numbers while outside of Canada...long distance rates apply.

Yes if I had known better I should have been looking up the dial in numbers for the country I was visiting and still working from/making conference calls. I did start to and found that some of the services for calls I was invited to by my clients didn't have dial in numbers for certain countries.


Solution?

Fongo number...I think it was $3-6/month for service. WiFi at the hotel/AirBNB I was staying in. Even though I was thousands of miles away from Canada, the Fongo App was routing to servers in Canada somewhere (Ontario most likely) to initiate the call to the 1-800 numbers I had in the calendar invites I would be attending and worked perfect.

Frankly a few locations I stayed at had poor cell service (roaming) in the AirBnB I was staying in so the VOIP over WIFi in the house was a plus.

Most of my clients are now partially/fully voip. Using these services, particularly cloud based, means no more banks of phone lines and expensive at the buildings they operate with in, just good internet and ideally a good backup internet circuit to each location.

Cheers

 

[Darts]

My 647 number right now used to be a Chinese Restaurant

You're lucky it wasn't a stripper's former number. LOL!

 

[peteeey]

I recently moved from the 905 to the 416 and had to change the number on my Rogers home phone. I was offered a choice of around five numbers that began with 416.

It was the only part of my move that Rogers didn't screw up, but that's another story.

 

[Angelbane78]

I am having difficulties with this particular code range. To be precise, when I get a number, I am constantly sent to some kind of international connection from where I can't get through. I took a fake phone number generator to see how it worked. And I got the number in this region and the range matched. For physical numbers, it is not always possible to use the number in the right place and the line is blocked. It's an unfortunate situation, but it's not a good one.

 

[Jenesis]

Same goes for mailing addresses. A previous tenant (rental) or owner of a home falls offside with a creditor, say a bank or car loan, and never updated their address with the creditor...so the creditor starts sending scare mail to that address.

My sister bought a condo 4 years ago...and there is a bank still sending mail like this to her address for a guy who lived there previously. She's called the bank and tried to get them to stop/find him at his current address or number...but nope...still gets the mail. Problem is the bank is one of her primary banks and she likes them so she gets legit mail from them for her. I told her to go full paperless with that bank to then at least know if it came in the mail, it's likely not for her...see if that works.

I had this happen with someone’s bank statements. I brought them into the bank and asked them to contact the customer for their correct address as this just started happening out of the blue. The bank didn’t the first time. Second time I spoke directly to a manager and explained that thankfully I am not some scammer who would use the info inside. All envelopes where deliver back in-opened. They finally stopped.

I had someone open a kodoo account with my address. Again, out of the blue. I will get their mail and I am assuming it is not past due notices by the change in envelope. I don’t open these things. Not my mail. Kodoo won’t change the address and just say to throw out the mail. I personally mark return to sender and mail it back. Just to give them the extra paper work. Maybe they will figure it out.

As for 416 numbers, it is not just those. There was a girl who was given an old escorts number one. It was in the news. I think that was a 289 if I remember correctly. LOL.

I would google any number before taking it if I could.