I have no sympathy for Randy Hopper, but consider this: his mistake was very easy to make.
Kossacks have been drooling today over the news that endangered Wisconsin state senator Randy Hopper published a newsletter containing a toll-free number that directed to a phone-sex line. As much as I want to see Hopper go down, his misfortune has become common, and it's only by dumb luck that it hasn't happened to a Democrat yet.
According to an AP Impact story published April 19, an obscure Philadelphia company has hoarded more than 20% of all toll-free telephone numbers, sometimes less than one second after they become available.
Records obtained by The Associated Press show that over the past 13 years, a little-known Philadelphia company called PrimeTel Communications has quietly gained control over nearly a quarter of all the 1-800 numbers in the U.S. and Canada, often by grabbing them the moment they are relinquished by previous users. As of March, it administered more 800 numbers than any other company, including Verizon and AT&T.
And many, if not most, of those 1.7 million numbers appear to be used for one thing: redirecting callers to a phone-sex service.
PrimeTel now owns so many toll-free numbers that an error of one digit in a published number can produce a major embarrassment for a small business, a nonprofit... or a Democratic politician. The obvious question is: Where has the FCC been during the 13 years this has been going on?
FCC rules expressly ban service providers from reserving a number unless they have a genuine customer lined up to use it. Speculating in numbers is banned. They are considered public resources that may not be bought or sold.
"Public resources"? My, what a quaint and outmoded concept. Although this practice is 13 years old, who would be surprised if it took off under the industry kiss-up Bush administration? Just another example of how the few are slowly taking over everything in this country.