When a toll free number drops, the race is over in seconds

A toll free number that goes out of service does not just sit and wait for a new owner. The moment it becomes available, automated systems compete to grab it. We reconstructed how fast, and what really happens, from the public Somos registry. Here is what the numbers show.

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.

50.1% bulk reallocation 49.9% real moves

Bulk reallocation: 100+ numbers moved at once, mechanical, no change of control Real moves: a number that actually changes hands

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.

Direct transferone owner hands a number off to another, fewer than 100 at a time

18.0%

Open dropwon from the open pool, mostly at the nightly 11pm ET drop

72.2%

Constant automationswept out of the pool within 30 minutes by automated requesting

9.0%

Coordinated catchreleased off-hours and grabbed within 5 seconds, someone waiting

0.8%

It's a race to get numbers when they come out of the aging process

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.

within seconds within minutes 30 minutes or more ▲ taller than the chart, see the label

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.

See the transfer network

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.

Find your number How backorders work

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.