Toll free numbers about to drop.
When a toll free number disconnects it spends 120 days aging before it returns to the spare pool. The minute it lands there, vendors grab it. We track those numbers so a regular customer has a chance to get the one they want.
Breakdown by area code
Each bar shows the total numbers currently in the disconnect window for that NPA, split between DISCONN (just released) and TRANSIT (further along the 120 day aging). 833 leads by a wide margin because it is the newest namespace and is still churning through post auction inventory. 800 is the smallest because it has been functionally exhausted for years.
So what happens to all these numbers?
They do not sit and wait for you. The moment one drops back into the pool, automated catchers grab it, and the companies running those catchers do it for inventory, then resell what they own for whatever the market will pay. None of them do it for a customer who wants one specific number. We are the only ones who do, for a flat fee set by area code, not by what the number is worth. Here is the data.
Half of all "transfers" are not transfers at all
Out of 9,399,422 number movements in the registry, half are bulk reallocations of 100 or more numbers at once between Resp Orgs. That is inventory being shuffled, not a number changing hands. Strip those out and the real picture gets much smaller, and much more competitive.
Where numbers that really change hands go
Of the 4,694,582 genuine moves, most are not private handoffs. They are won from the open pool, the great majority at the nightly 11pm Central drop. That is the battleground.
How fast is the grab?
Every number here passed through the open spare pool, where anyone can take it. This is how long it survived before an automated system grabbed it, during the nightly drop versus the rest of the day.
During the nightly 11pm ET drop
19.2% gone in one second. 44.9% within ten seconds.
The rest of the day (off hours)
Most sit for hours, but constant automation still sweeps 19.9% within thirty minutes.
These races have winners
The same Resp Orgs grab these numbers over and over. We mapped every transfer in the registry, so you can see the machine for yourself.
Every fast grab on this page is an automated system run by a company that acquires toll free numbers in volume. They point these tools at inventory, going for quantity. None of them do it for a customer who wants one specific number.
We are the one that does. We run the same machinery, the nightly drop and the all day sweep, but we aim it at the single number you actually want. It is a rifle instead of a shotgun. We will not pull in millions of numbers, and we will not win every premium number in the drop. What we will do is give a real customer a real shot at a real number, using exactly the tools the big acquirers thought only they had.
That is what a backorder buys you: us, in the race, on your side.
Reconstructed from public Somos registry data covering 9,399,422 number movements. Speeds measure time from a number entering the open spare pool to being acquired.
Network Map
The hidden network of who hands toll free numbers to whom. Built from 26 million live Somos history events. Click anywhere on the map to filter and explore by area code, transfer type, time window, and vanity quality.
How the disconnect window works
- Disconnect. The original customer stops paying or releases the number. The phone company moves it to DISCONNECT status. The 120-day clock starts.
- Transit. Some phone companies move the number to TRANSIT status during the aging window, usually to save carrying cost. Same clock, same outcome.
- Drop. Around day 120, the number returns to the spare pool. Phone vendors racing for it usually take it within seconds. We give regular customers a head start.
Read the full guide for the 120 day mechanics, what can go wrong, and the pricing by area code. Or read about the 833 auction limbo, where tens of thousands of 833 vanity numbers have been stuck since 2021.
Categories with disconnects right now
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