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A comment on Answering Every Question You Have About IMEI Numbers. Parent comment

Re:Answering Every Question You Have About IMEI Numbers by jimbobthrowawy on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @01:06AM (#40219697)
I have heard of people calling emergency numbers to test if a phone is working, but never a country making that impossible. Here, I had always assumed that repeated nuisance callers would be investigated to see if there's an actual problem, and charged with a crime if they're doing it for no good reason.

Always thought it would make more sense to have a dedicated "test number" for this purpose. Probably with some rate limiting.

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Re:Answering Every Question You Have About IMEI Numbers by amatecha on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @01:52AM (#40219960)
A lot of telcos used to have phone numbers you could call that would just say the number you're calling from (like with a computerized voice). I forget what this was called, but it was talked about in phreaking community or so on. Not sure if these "caller identifier" phone numbers are still around today though.
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Re:Answering Every Question You Have About IMEI Numbers by miki123211 on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @05:25AM (#40221123)
They're easier to make than ever, all you need is Twillio and a bit of Python code. There are quite a few in the US alone, both provided by carriers as well as enthusiasts and other companies in the industry.
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Re:Answering Every Question You Have About IMEI Numbers by bsagdiyev on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @07:36AM (#40221909)
800-444-4444 still works. Even starts with "thank you for calling MCI"
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Re:Answering Every Question You Have About IMEI Numbers by razakel on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @08:14AM (#40222147)
They're called ANACs - automatic number announcement circuits.
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Re:Answering Every Question You Have About IMEI Numbers by amatecha on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @03:30PM (#40228172)
Ah yeah that's right, thanks!
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Re:Answering Every Question You Have About IMEI Numbers by BayesianDice on Wednesday May 01, 2024 @08:21AM (#40222189)
BT in the UK has 17070 which tells you the number and lets you do tests like the "quiet line test". Handy when working out what was going on when I moved into a property with no live phone service (so no normal outgoing calls), lots of phone extension sockets, and (I discovered) two landlines coming in...
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