Wrong Number? Blame Companies' Recycling
Almost 37 million phone numbers get recycled each year, a 16% increase since 2007, according to the most recent figures from the Federal Communications Commission. That means with more and more people going cellular, it is increasingly common to get calls intended for previous subscribers.
It's mostly because of a quirky bureaucratic process designed to stave off the day when the nation runs out of 10-digit phone numbers. On the second floor of a building in Sterling (VA) is a little-known, administrative body called the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA). This group of 12 people oversees the nation's phone numbers. Until 2002, NANPA issued carriers 10,000-number blocks. But as mobile-phone use became pervasive, carriers quickly snapped up more blocks, accelerating the race toward what the industry calls "number exhaustion"—the day when every possible number is taken. Now, NANPA doles out numbers in blocks of 1,000, and telecommunications experts estimate North America won't run out of phone numbers until 2040. (There's no plan yet for what happens after that, though NANPA says it's studying options.) NANPA releases as many as 30 million never-before-used numbers each year, but carriers can only get them after they have assigned 75% of their inventory and are six months away from exhausting their supply. As a result, many carriers end up assigning recycled numbers before the standard waiting period (90 days for personal numbers, one year for businesses) has passed.