In Hollywood movies, most phone numbers have started with 555. 555 numbers are hardly used in the US and thus curious fans can not get themselves to call and disturb a real person when they want to call for example Ghost busters (555-2368).
In the UK, it was decided in 2004 that each region would have a thousand telephone numbers available for drama.
There are therefore different area codes so that you can tell if a TV character is calling someone in Northern Ireland, Birmingham or Edinburgh.
Even unspecified locations have their own number.
In Ireland, 02091 numbers have been reserved for film and drama, and in several other countries some figures have been earmarked for the fiction and entertainment industries.
Both mobile and fixed telephony
So now it's time for Swedish fictional people to get their own numbers.
- You want to avoid inserting telephone numbers in films and books that then happen to harm subscribers, says Bo Martinsson, at the unit for numbers and addressing at the Swedish Post and Telecom Agency to Dagens Nyheter.
070-1740605 to 070-1740699 can therefore only be used by pretend persons.
There are also numbers for landlines, but only for four cities.