4 ms·

Phone numbers do get recycled in a lot of countries though.

• lucb1e 9y ago
  Are there countries where it's not necessary to recycle them?
• anarazel 9y ago
  Which is really annoying. Still getting calls, two+ years in, for the previous owner of my number. Including from medical providers.
  • therein 9y ago
    A CVS half a continent away from has been calling me thinking that I am the previous owner of this phone number for the last six months or so. First they were leaving voicemails that I need to pick up a prescription and that they will return it in a day and stop calling me. But they have been calling every few days or so ever since. I had this phone number for over 4 years.
• dragonwriter 9y ago
  That's always been the case. The problem is that, especially over the last couple of decades, people have built lots of systems with a central assumption being that phone numbers are uniquely tied to individuals. So, instead of fixing those systems, I guess the idea is to adapt phone numbers to the faulty assumptions made about them.