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A telephone prefix is the first set of digits of a telephone number; in the North American Numbering Plan countries (country code 1), it is the first three digits out of a seven-digit phone number. It shows which exchange the remaining numbers refer to.
Some places restrict certain prefixes to only fax numbers or for cell phones while in other places the prefixes are random.
Most (but not all) area codes reserve the prefix 555 for special uses (555-1212 is telephone information in most area codes.) For this reason, it is often used for phone numbers in television and movies. Failure to do so can cause a number of problems, as occurred with the release of the song 867-5309/Jenny causing hundreds of calls to the various people and organizations all over the U.S. that had that phone number. The film Bruce Almighty resulted in someone's real phone number being used, eventually leading to a lawsuit.
See also
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