Is it possible for my phone number (bill in good standing) to be given to a new customer accidentally?

Question

I just tried to call a friend of mine. The person on the other end said wrong number. I called again and got the same person- the person said they just got the number today. When I got ahold of my friend, my friend says he gets dead air- I didn't even know this was possible.

SO- IS this even physically possible? I know its improbable, but is it even possible?

Answer 1

when the person you called answered did you verify the number with them as theres?

it is possible that the "new" person just had there installation, and the tech had to do a LST (line station transfer) where there are not enough lines in the terminal, they will swap a working pair with a spare at a diffrent terminal to make a spare in the home terminal for the new line.. sometimes this takes several minutes to several hours to complete. this assumes that the "new" person has a diffrent number then the one you called..

it is highly unlikely that the number was given to this person since yesterday, phone numbers usually take months before they are recycled, another possibility is someone transfered your friends phone service to this new persons address, hopefully by mistake...

your friend is going to have to call his local phone company and put in a trouble ticket for no dial tone..