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Re:Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Phone Numbers by dvirsky on Sunday March 20, 2016 @01:49AM (#11321967)
I'm from Israel and I never realized it's unique, funny. I think it started about 15 years ago as way for mobile providers to create unique numbers for their own services like support. And since those are also very short numbers, usually 4 digits, it eventually became sort of a 1-800 replacement (on mobile only AFAIK) because it's easy to memorize.
Re:Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Phone Numbers by ajosh on Sunday March 20, 2016 @02:10AM (#11321994)
US Carriers used to have this and they may still. I have definitely seen signs to call 77 for roadside assistance. I also remember some radio station having a code(star number?) that related. To their frequency.

Edit: Here is a list of emergency numbers. 77 and *999 are on the list for different states. http://www.ou.edu/police/dpsinfo/state-by-state-cellphone-hi...