If I’m ever in a “you get one phone call” situation I’ll have to call my ex, because we got our first cell phones together circa 2002 and our numbers are one digit off each other. That’s the only number other than mine that I’m 100% confident in my memory of anymore.
Where were you from in MN? My parents got their phone number when they built the house in Roseville in 1961. The exchange was Ivanhoe (48). They moved to Shoreview just before I was born in '73 and took the number with them. They had it for 59 years.
I don’t believe that it was common in the 70’s that they could move a residential phone number to a new address unless the lines/switches in both neighborhoods were served out of the same physical building.
It was in Beta for many years, everybody got 6 invites to give out IIRC so it wasn't very difficult to get in. They were increasing storage space as the service expanded, there used to be a little counter at the bottom saying your current allowance.
My cell number was my parents' original home phone number that they received in 1952, when phone numbers used letters and words, along with numbers.
My sister has had the same cell for 30-ish years (started as a car phone).
My ex has had the same cell for somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years.
That is really cool that you have your parents original home phone number. I would love to do that actually (doubt it is available). How were you able to swing that may I ask?
When my dad passed (my mom had passed years before), I took the bill and death certificate to the phone company, the same one as his landline, and had it transfered into my name. The number has not left my family. I am psychotic about paying my cell bill so I don't lose it.
Nice. My family phone number probably hasn’t been in our family for about 20 years now, and I don’t live in that area anymore. But, if I get the chance I’m going to jump on that. What you did is very meaningful.
A couple of months after my dad died, I called one of my nieces from my cell and that number. She did not know I had changed it, and it popped up on her phone that her dead grandfather was calling. I laughed so hard I cried.
22 years. My current number is only my second mobile number since 1999, when I became a victim of Sprint PCS and Trenchcoat Guy.
I switched to “Can you hear me now?” in 2001. By the time I felt like trying another carrier, local number portability became possible, so I haven’t changed numbers since.
I can't remember, but I think it was 1999. I'm proud to say that I still have the same cell phone number! Even when I switched providers and my area code wasn't "cool," I kept it all these years. I've only met one other person who has their original cell phone number.
My mobile number goes back to the mid 1990s. I ported it to Google Voice maybe 15 or more years ago, so that number rings my mobile phone as well as all my home landline phones using a VoIP interface.
My parents ported their number from the 1960s (my childhood number) to a mobile carrier many years ago. When my mom died, I ported that number to my mobile carrier for my dad, who lives with me. So in a way, I have a cell phone number that dates from almost 60 years ago.
I tried to port my grandparents' old number (which they got in 1950, stopped using in 1994 and is still not being used in our city) but my cellphone provider is telling me I can't use it. Or was. I moved to another provider and will try again. I would absolutely love to have that number.
Try numberbarn.com It’s a service that lets you buy phone numbers. It’s meant for businesses to get specialized numbers, but it works for anyone. As long as your number doesn’t spell a word, they can be had pretty cheaply. I got one that’s special to one of my fandoms for $5. No guarantees, but they have tens of millions of numbers.
When I got my cell number I was asked what I wanted it to be. I chose the last 4 digits of the number I grew up with. So, not the whole number but the last 4 dates back to the 70s (or before).
Pretty sure I got mine when I moved in '99, so 24 years.
My parents had their landline phone number for 59 years. While closing out their estate, I was fine when closing bank accounts, credit cards, etc., but when I got to shutting off the phone number they'd had since 1961, I LOST IT on the phone with the person from the phone company. They were very kind to me.
I've had the same phone number since I got my first phone in the 90s AND the same email address (its my actual name in hotmail).
I periodically think about ditching hotmail because I hate Microsoft (and Apple both, I use Linux) but I've had the email address for so long that people I've lost contact could use it to track me down. I'm wary of getting a new one.
20 years. It was a work number I got when promoted in 2003, by the time I led the company I was senior enough to port the number. I’ve kept it ever since.
I had a personal mobile that I kept for a few years on a back up phone and sim but then lost track of it and it expired If I had managed to hold it my number would be 28 years old as my first mobile was 1995.
Same number and carrier since 01. Had another mobile before then and exactly what became of it. All I can say is I did a lot of drugs. I still do a lot of one drug, but I also... you get the picture.
31 years. I have had the same cell phone number since 1992. It started out as a car phone number. Then I kept the same number through all different kinds of cell phones. Flip phones, Razors, iPhones. I still miss the Razor though.
Mine is only about 10 years old BUT my old number that I gave to my ex is still going strong. We divorced 30+ years ago so it’s about 32 or 33 years old.
Just over 25 years here. I got a Nokia brick from Sprint when I first arrived in the US in May 1998. Still have the same number, but Sprint is now T-Mobile
This phone number, I've had maybe 12 or 13 years. From the 1990s to about 2010-ish, I had several different numbers. That's because my dad was developing wireless technology, and was providing me phones to test. My sister and I were part of his test market for years, because we all lived in different states and he needed to know how his stuff was working around the country. Sis and I both finally stopped being testers, because we wanted to commit to a phone number. 🤣
2009. When I moved states and got married in order to combine accounts to one plan one of us had to change area codes. I changed to the one we lived in. Prior to that mine was from when I first got a cell phone in the 90s to when I had to change it.
Gosh I moved across the country 20 years ago and wanted a local number. I have no attachment to the number I had, we’d moved from my childhood home 11 years before that so that number was long gone.
About 4 years.
My brother has had his more than 20 years, for his kind of on call job (has to remain in touch with his boss for the next work assignment details).
I finally chose one I could remember in 2015. I'd only had two cellphones before that. I rarely remembered to take them with me. I didn't own one until 2006 - I didn't see the point.
When I got a work cell phone I gave my original cell phone to my daughter. That number is 25 years old older than she is. I recently had to get a new personal cell so my current number is only 6 or 7 years old.
My current number is only about 10 yo.
I work part time doing service calls, I've found having an area code of 808 makes a lot of people not answer because they missread it for a 1-800 number.
23 years. It's a work number that has been posted publicly on my company's website thousands of times. As you can imagine, that number gets a spicy level of spam/scam/phish calls.
I changed my number after a move about 12-13 years ago.
But how old is your account? I’m with AT&T because back in the 90s I had some local cellphone company in Massachusetts. That merged to become Cellular One, then Cell One (or vice versa,) then Cingular, then AT&T. I don’t even love, love AT&T, but it’s like the cable company.
16 years.
A great thing I realized when I moved out of state and kept my phone number: telemarketers always call you with a local/in-state number hoping it’ll seem familiar and you’ll pick up. But I don’t talk to anyone from that old area code (since I left the job that placed me there), so I know immediately which calls are junk.
Fifteen probably. I remember when I got it when I was in my early 40s. I rarely actually use a phone, so I ask for the lowest minutes plan and they gave me the senior plan. Funny. Still have it, still only use about 10 phone minutes a month.
I still have my original, Cingular Wireless number from 2001 or so, which I got shortly after getting married in February of that year. In 2011 I transferred it to Google Voice so that I wouldn't lose it when I moved to China.
Despite having actual, paid credits, it wouldn't forward calls to numbers in China, which is probably a good thing given the 12 to 13 hour time difference.
When I repatriated I decided to keep it at Google, just so that I could be flexible with my cell phone choice.
The only thing that sucks is some services refuse to use it for 2FA, because they know it's a virtual number rather than tied to a "real" phone.
My phone number is one of my most prized possessions because the last 4 digits is my name. The guy who worked at Sprint in 1998 (25 years ago!) asked me what number I wanted and all I could think of was my name and it happened to be available, and the first six digits were identical to my wife's first six.
So I'm quite fond of it.
I used to have the best number back in the 90s
(XXX) 575-5557, and my mom had (XXX) 575-5559
Then WorldCom went under and and back then, we couldn't transfer the number to Cingular.
I've had my current number for about six years. When I was going through my divorce, I changed my number from the one I'd had for almost two decades previously.
20 years for mine as well, got it when I moved to my current city (back then, numbers weren't as portable).
I've also had the same AOL email address since 1997.
I've had my cell phone since 1996, so the number has stayed the same. The area code split since then but my phone still has one of the original area codes for my state.
Mom's home phone has been the same since 1970.
Summer 96 I got stranded in my boat and a big ordeal could have been avoided with a couple of phone calls.
That week I went and got myself a NEC brick phone on a local carrier. I believe it was Cellular One. It eventually rolled into another company or two and ended up part of Verizon. I still have the same number and haven't made a new account in 27 years.
I have actively looked into switching 4 or 5 times over the years, but always end up not because the coverage is crap out here in the sticks.
I was thinking that mine wasn't 20 yet. Then my brain kicked in that 20 years ago was 2003 not the 90s. Fuck, I'm old. Anyway, it's the same # from my original cell in the late 90s.
Literally 30 years. It started as a number on a rarely-used bag phone I kept in my car for emergencies as a new teenager driver. I ported the number over when I got an actual phone that I carried around, then a flip phone, then a Motorola Razr, then a Blackberry, and finally iPhones.
24 years. We got them when my wife was pregnant with our first. The number had never been used and I have protected like a wolverine from telemarketers over the years.
My cell phone number is almost 13 years old.
BUT I still have (not as a primary address, but it’s still active and I check it about once a month) my original AOL email address that I created in early February 1998.
I remember here in Canada you used to have to fill out a bunch of forms to have your number ported and it wasn't a guarantee that the old carrier would let you. Also you had to wait a week or so before it happened.
I still flinch when I change carriers even though it's instantaneous nowadays.
In the U.K. you had to ring them, sit on hold for anything up to an hour, ask for a PAC number; ring the new provider, hold again, tell them the number, then have no phone for 3 days while they transferred.
It was easier to text everyone your new number. Plus you could choose not to tell people you didn’t like.
It's easier to text people _now_ anyway because of smartphones. Back then someone would have to either write your number down in their book or use the painfully slow method of entering it in the contacts of the dumbphone.
My cell number is about 18 years old but I also use the same AOL email address I created in college about 28 years ago. I do have a "grown up" gmail account but it's just too much of a hassle to switch everything over.
It goes back 23 years. Back then you could choose the last four numbers “to make it easy to remember” and since my first name is four letters I did that.
my first cell phone in 1999 same number since it..
almost 30 phone/smartphone after.
then TWENTY FOUR YEARS OLD!! and I don't have so much scam/advertising
Here's the thing, this is the only cell phone number I've ever had! I got my first cell phone in college in '95. It was an old Alltel number, which got bought by Cingular, that was purchased by AT&T... i just kept the number and now i refuse to change it.
I remember getting mine sometime in high school had the same number ever since it's funny me and my buddy were just talking about it how me and him are the only ones that still have our number since high school. And that kind of shows responsibility in some way I guess. But yeah I'd have to say probably since 1998 however many years that is. It might have been earlier I had that Nokia StarTAC flip open but quickly moved to the Nokia that you can put the lights under the buttons so when it rang it lit up. And while you were talking you could have it fade from like red to blue real slow back and forth. What do you know about that little snake game on your cell phone everything in black and white.
Got mine from Sprint Spectrum back in 1997. They used to let you pick your phone number, so the last 4 digits of my phone number are the same as my pager number from back in the day. 2 years later, I bought my wife-to-be her very first cell phone and got the last 4 digits of her number the same as mine. We stayed with Sprint for their entire run until they got bought out by T-mobile.
24-25: I think I got it around 1999 because there was a small spell after I graduated from college where I was using a pager. (I remember talking to an office friend at one of my first real world jobs, and he was saying, “All you need is a pager because you’re never gonna be that far from a phone in this city!”) Kinda weird to think about, but I’ve moved so many times since 1999 — my cell phone # and my good ol’ AOL email have been the most constant ways to reach me through all the dramatic changes.
When did they pass the law stating that your number can stay with you? That is how long I’ve had the same number. Used to be if you switched carriers you got a new number. It was great when we were able to transfer my parents old land line number to mom’s cell.
I have a cell phone who's only job is holding my parents 60 year old home phone number for nostalgia reasons. When I got my parents cell phones on a family plan 10 years ago we got 3 accounts and a fourth one for free. We made the house phone number into a cell phone. Now my mom has passed and her cell phone became a cellular router, but my dad and I are still using that family account with the free fourth line and the old house number. It's basically unusable though with the scam and spam calls and texts it gets. I just look at it every few days and clear all the notifications. My actual phone number that I use is about 15 years old.
August 1994.
It’s followed me thru 3 states, 2 schools, and a dozen jobs. It’s WAY easier to give someone an out of state number than to track down everyone I know and update their info.
I’ve kept the same number since July 1997, so 26 years.
A couple of years ago I was in a financial bind and asked for an extension, explaining to the customer service rep that very fact. They whispered “You’ve had your mobile number longer than I’ve been alive!”
Wow, I don’t know… at least 25 years? One of the few numbers I know off by heart. My wife got her phone from the same shop as me and her number is only two digits different to mine!
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