Phone sex has operated in its current condition for quite some time. In this article, I discuss a few semi-related events in the history of this curious industry. Despite the fact that the public imagination and the media constructs the image of phone sex operators as mysterious, romantic, or sometimes deplorable figures, there is nothing profound or extraordinary about many of them or the realities of the industry itself.

AT&T structured 900-numbers the way we understand them today in 1980. This allowed people access to information and entertainment in return for a by-the-minute fee. The tradeoff for the opportunities it opened up was that it became a venue of exploitation. In 1992, congress required 900 numbers, including phone sex services, to adhere to certain standards of transparency with their customers regarding fees-per-minute. The act requires that 900 numbers include a preamble at the beginning of any service call which gives customers the opportunity to hang up before they officially incur any fees. When the Pacific Bell telephone company first contracted phone sex exchanges to the metro New York area, they made .5 million in the year of 1987 alone. Combined, the four major international phone companies AT&T, MCI, Sprint and Telesphere reported a total of 0 million dollars in revenue from 900 numbers (including phone sex numbers alone) in that one year.

More recently (June of 2011), a media outlet called The Statesman reports that a member of the New York congress, Anthony Weiner, publicly broke down crying in the face of accusations that he conducted adulterous online and phone sex activities with a total of six women in recent history. Although he admitted to harboring shame for the public discovery of his phone sex habit, he ultimately chose not to resign despite its becoming public. Weiner, 46, confessed to carrying on long distance phone sex relationships with all 6 of these women. None of these relationships ever proceeded beyond phone sex and \’sexting\’ into a physical relationship. Weiner maintains that he did not engage in physical sexual relations with any women during the period of time in question other than his wife: Huma Abedin. Abedin is a secretary and aid to Hillary Clinton. The U.S. Congress elected Weiner for seven consecutive terms. Up until his teary-eyed confessions regarding phone sex, Weiner had planned to run for mayor of New York in 2013.