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58-458: The original AppleLink, which went online in 1985, was a service available only to Apple employees and dealers, and shortly thereafter to Apple University Consortium members. Apple's consumer 800 number in fact touted this fact, promoting your dealer as the place to turn for help because of his access to AppleLink. In the late 1980s the service was also opened up to software developers , who could use it both as an end-user support system as well as

116-509: A "band" of one or several U.S. states or Canadian provinces. Early InWATS 800 calling lacked the complex routing features offered with modern toll-free service. After competitive carriers were allowed to compete with AT&T in establishing toll-free service, the three digit exchange following the 800 prefix was linked to a specific destination carrier and area code; the number itself corresponded to specific telephone switching offices and trunk groups. All calls went to one central destination; there

174-457: A 'Data Base Communication Call Processing Method' which was deployed by AT&T in 1982. The called number was an index into a database, allowing a 'Toll-Free Call' or '800 Call' to be directed anywhere. This feature and other advances that made it possible were what led to AT&T marketing analyst Dodge Cepeda from Bedminster, New Jersey to propose the introduction of providing 800 Toll-Free Service to small and medium-size business customers on

232-514: A conduit to Apple development for questions and suggestions. AppleLink used client software written in Pascal under contract to Apple by Pete Burnight / Central Coast Software . The program extended the desktop metaphor of the Macintosh Finder to encompass the areas on the remote server site. These were displayed as folders and files just as local folders and files were. In addition, there

290-427: A failed rewrite. The new layout engine ( Gecko ) had developed independently from Navigator and did not integrate readily with Navigator's code; hence Navigator itself was rewritten around the new engine, breaking many existing features and delaying release by several months. Meanwhile, Microsoft focused on incremental improvements to Internet Explorer and did not face the same obstacles. Ironically, Navigator itself

348-454: A language still used in a very similar form for today's Macintosh modem scripts. The " back end " of the AppleLink system was hosted on General Electric 's Information Services ( GEIS ) (division) Mark III time-sharing mainframes and worldwide communications network . AppleLink translated the user's GUI actions into a transaction protocol that was sent into a server program running on

406-405: A means to circumvent FCC regulations against "warehousing, hoarding and brokering" toll-free numbers as technically the number is not being sold, only rented one city or region at a time. The practice is nonetheless potentially problematic as it leaves local businesses advertising numbers which they do not own and for which they therefore have no number portability . The cost per minute and per month

464-464: A nationwide basis. Once this service was implemented, it became possible for the very smallest of business operations to have potential customers contact them free of charge at a time when long-distance calling was expensive. Until this time, 800 Service was only available to major Fortune 500 companies. In the United Kingdom, BT introduced "Linkline" on 12 November 1985. No more need to manually ring

522-410: A point hundreds or thousands of miles away from their actual location. A roaming mobile or Internet telephone user is effectively (like the user of a foreign exchange line ) attached to a distant rate centre far from their physical address. If a program like Crime Stoppers is inherently regional or local, but its national 1‑800‑222‑TIPS number is shared between multiple exchanges,

580-414: A result, when GEIS developed the improved EFX and upgraded AppleLink, it never released source code to Apple, supplying only a copyrighted code-resource for the protocol. Apple, encouraged by AOL's success and still wanting to turn the cost of AppleLink into a profit center, decided to re-enter the market. After a months-long RFP process that included GEIS as an unsuccessful bidder, Apple approached AOL at

638-560: A site within AOL's Computing Channel at keyword "Apple". Later, this site was shut down and replaced with website addressed by subdomains under apple.com. The AppleLink service itself was finally shut down at the end of March 1997. AppleLink's server machines (not the GEIS mainframes) were named for various famous musical composers: Beethoven , Copland , Lennon , etc. Toll-free telephone number A toll-free telephone number or freephone number

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696-487: A somewhat similar system for users of the Commodore 64 . They reached an agreement in which Apple and Quantum would develop a new system known as AppleLink Personal Edition, which would be intended for end-users until all existing AppleLink content could be moved over and the system proved itself stable enough for support services as well. Beta-test users were generally disappointed that the new service did not give them access to

754-489: A version for both the Mac and Microsoft Windows machines in 1989, calling the new service America Online as Apple owned the AppleLink name. In 1991 the service had grown substantially, and the company was renamed as America Online Inc. The original AOL Macintosh software still retained within it vestiges of its GEIS/AppleLink heritage. It was not lost on GEIS engineers that it included a version of their proprietary EF3 protocol which

812-539: Is "被叫集中付费业务" (called party collect paid service), which means the cost of the call is borne not by the caller but by the party receiving the call. The introduction of 0800/0900 numbers in the Netherlands in 1986 has led to significant growth of call centres and an increase in outsourcing. Originally, free telephone numbers in the Netherlands started with either the 06-0, 06-4 or 06-3000 prefix. Most 0800-numbers cannot be called from abroad, and only few can be called from

870-611: Is 0800, first used in November 1985. Additionally, numbers in the range 0808 80x xxxx are reserved for not-for-profit helplines, through a scheme negotiated by the Helplines Partnership (now known as the Helplines Association). Since 1 July 2015, all 0800 and 0808 numbers have been free to call from landlines and mobile phones alike. Most mobile phone operators had charged for such calls previously, with Orange being

928-472: Is Mark Russell's 1‑800‑GREATRATE, a shared-use number rented to lenders in various cities nationwide for a monthly fee. One former Mercedes dealer obtained 1‑800‑MERCEDES, charging other dealers to receive calls to that number from their local areas. The automaker unsuccessfully sued MBZ Communications of Owatonna, Minnesota , operated by former Mercedes dealer Donald Bloom, alleging deception and trademark infringement . Mercedes

986-476: Is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party , a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefix similar to an area code . The specific service access varies by country. The features of toll-free services have evolved as telephone networks have evolved from electro-mechanical call switching to computerized stored program controlled networks. Originally, before

1044-641: Is a worldwide toll-free "800 number" issued by the International Telecommunication Union. Like the 800 area code issued for the North American Numbering Plan in the United States and Canada and 0800 numbers in many other countries, the call is free for the caller while the receiver pays the charges. UIFN uses country-level calling code 800 so that no matter where the caller is, only the international access code (IAC),

1102-594: Is an alternative approach, in which developers gradually replace the existing code with calls into a new implementation, expanding that implementation until it fully replaces the old one. This approach avoids a broad loss of functionality during the rewrite. Cleanroom software engineering is another approach, which requires the team to work from an exhaustive written specification of the software's functionality, without access to its code. Netscape 's project to improve HTML layout in Navigator 4 has been cited as an example of

1160-439: Is one of three ITU-administered non-geographic codes with a similar numbering scheme. The +808 Universal International Shared Cost Number (UISCN), billed at the price of a domestic call, shares the same eight-digit format; the +979 Universal International Premium Rate Number (UIPRN), billed at a high premium cost, carries one extra digit to indicate price range. Rewrite (programming) A rewrite in computer programming

1218-495: Is the act or result of re-implementing a large portion of existing functionality without re-use of its source code . When the rewrite uses no existing code at all, it is common to speak of a rewrite from scratch . A piece of software is typically rewritten when one or more of the following apply: Several software engineers, such as Joel Spolsky have warned against total rewrites, especially under schedule constraints or competitive pressures. While developers may initially welcome

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1276-416: Is typically far higher for a shared-use number than for a standard toll-free vanity number which a local business controls outright, and there is little protection if the shared use company fails to meet its obligations or ceases operation. There are also technical limitations; voice over IP users in particular are difficult to geolocate as their calls may be gated to the public switched telephone network at

1334-539: Is valued as a branding and direct response tool in business advertising. In the United States, Federal Communications Commission regulations mandate that numbers be allocated on a first come, first served basis; this gives vanity number operators who register as RespOrgs a strong advantage in obtaining the most valuable phonewords, as they have first access to newly disconnected numbers and to newly introduced toll-free area codes. In Australia, premium numbers, such as

1392-607: The Bell System on May 2, 1967 and the Linkline (later "Freefone") 0800 services by British Telecom on 12 November 1985, manually ringing the operator was the standard means to place a toll-free call. More than a few established manual "Freephone" or "Zenith" numbers remained in use for many years after competing automated systems (0800 in UK, 1‑800 in U.S.) were deployed in parallel for new toll-free numbers. An automated toll-free service

1450-542: The Caribbean Netherlands (by dialing 0031800). 088-numbers are shared-cost; from landlines, the caller pays only the costs for a local call, whereas the receiver pays the rest. In the United Kingdom , toll-free telephone numbers are generally known as "freephone" numbers (British Telecom numbers use the previously trademarked term Freefone ) and begin with the prefixes 0800 or 0808. The most commonly used prefix

1508-582: The Microsoft Partner Network (MSPN). On August 9, 1991, AppleLink, running on a Macintosh Portable was used to send the first e-mail from space, aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis , mission STS-43 . Atlantis astronauts Shannon Lucid and James C. Adamson with the help of Dave Crego, an engineer at Apple, sent a message to Marcia Ivins, a shuttle communicator at Johnson Space Center . The Message read: "Hello Earth! Greetings from

1566-413: The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) are commonly called "800-numbers" after the first area code assigned for the service. Today, several prefixes are used: 800 (since January 1, 1966), 888 (since March 1, 1996), 877 (since April 4, 1998), 866 (since July 29, 2000), 855 (since October 9, 2010), 844 (since December 7, 2013), and 833 (since June 3, 2017 ). Area codes reserved for future expansion of

1624-442: The "real" AppleLink, and eventually the service was released instead as America Online. Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. , under contract to Apple and working closely with Apple's software engineers, designed the icons, dialogue boxes and screen layout for AppleLink Personal Edition. These icons and some dialogue boxes were incorporated into the first graphical user-interface design of America Online. Meanwhile, interested in selling

1682-510: The 13-series or the vanity phone words, are distributed by auction separately from the administrative procedure to assign random, generic numbers from the available pool. In toll-free telephony, a shared-use number is a vanity number (usually a valuable generic phone word ), which is rented to multiple local companies in the same line of business in different cities. These appear in Australia (1300 and 1800) and North America (1‑800, etc.); in

1740-506: The STS-43 Crew. This is the first AppleLink from space. Having a GREAT time, wish you were here,...send cryo and RCS! Hasta la vista, baby,...we'll be back!" The AppleLink software was configured with a special Macintosh Communications ToolBox Connection Tool that interfaced to NASA 's communication system which allowed the Shuttle to call up GEIS' network from space. The Shuttle's e-mail address

1798-607: The U.S., the RespOrg infrastructure is used to direct calls for the same number to different vendors based on the area code of the calling number. As one example, a taxi company could rent shared use of 1‑800‑TAXICAB in one city. The number belongs to a company in Van Nuys, California , but is redirected to local cab companies on a city-by-city basis and promoted by being printed on everything from individual taxi cab hub caps to campaigns against drunk driving . Another example

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1856-569: The UIFN country code (800) and the 8-digit UIFN need to be dialed. As of March 2020, 144 carriers in 67 countries participate in the UIFN program; free access to the numbers (as international calls) from mobile and coin telephones is not universal. Registration of a +800 number incurs a 300 Swiss franc ITU fee (as of 2018) in addition to any charges levied by the individual carrier. The number must be activated for inbound calls from at least two telephone country codes within 180 days. The +800 UIFN service

1914-477: The automatic system was developed, a call billed to the called party had to be placed through a telephone company operator as a collect call , often long-distance . The operator had to secure acceptance of the charges at the remote number, or even transfer that decision to a long-distance operator , before manually completing the call. Some large businesses and government offices received large numbers of collect calls, which proved time-consuming for operators and

1972-609: The caller's location. In addition to NANP toll-free numbers, carriers Bell Canada and Telus offer 310- numbers that can be accessed at local-call prices as shared-cost service (free from landlines, incurs local airtime charge from mobiles and local price from payphones ). There are a few special mobile-only numbers (like *CAA to call the Canadian Automobile Association ) which are free from cell phones, these are actually vertical service codes . 800 toll-free numbers are commonly called "800 免费电话". The official name

2030-613: The callers. Prior to the development of customer-dialed toll-free service many telephone companies provided the service by operator assistance for telephone subscribers without dial telephones ( manual service ). Operator-assisted toll-free calling included the Zenith number service introduced in the 1930s in the U.S. and Canada, as well as the manual 'Freephone' service introduced by the British Post Office in 1960. Both systems were similar in concept. The calling party would ring

2088-433: The chance to correct historical design mistakes, a rewrite also discards those parts of the design that work as required. A rewrite commits the development team to deliver not just new features, but all those that exist in the previous code, while potentially introducing new bugs or regressions of previously fixed bugs. A rewrite also interferes with the tracking of unfixed bugs in the old version. The incremental rewrite

2146-419: The end of 1992 to host a private-label system known as eWorld . By this time AOL had grown to be both much larger than GEIS, so all AppleLink content was to be moved over as well, allowing the GEIS service to be shut down. The eWorld software was basically a version of the original AOL software with custom graphics, giving it a distinctive look. The system was ready for launch in mid-1994. However, by this point

2204-491: The exchange accepting the call must determine whether the call belongs to some other region. The implementation of toll-free calling by assigning special telephone numbers for charging a destination party is implemented in many countries by various dialing prefixes in the local number plan. A system similar to 1800 numbering exists where 6 or 10 digit numbers prefixed with 13 (one-three), 1300 or 1301 (colloquially one-three-hundred) can be called at local call rates regardless of

2262-808: The final major network to introduce such charges during December 2005. Certain helplines, such as those in the 0808 80x xxxx series had remained free from most networks on a voluntary basis and some niche operators, such as Giffgaff always offered freephone calls at no charge. The UK mobile operators offer an alternative product to organisations who wish to provide toll-free services - 5-digit voice short codes which are sold through mobile aggregators. 0500 numbers, introduced by Mercury Communications (later known as Cable & Wireless , now Vodafone) in 1982, were also freephone numbers (known as "FreeCall"), but were officially withdrawn by Ofcom on 3 June 2017. A three-year transition period prior to that had allowed existing subscribers to migrate to matching 080 85 numbers with

2320-410: The mainframe. The connection used a proprietary error free sliding window protocol called EF3 . Later versions upgraded this protocol to GEIS' "EFX" (Error-Free eXtended) protocol. GEIS charged fairly substantial prices to Apple, both for maintaining the service (about $ 30 million a year per year), and the end-users' connection fees of about $ 15 an hour during business hours (which Apple rebilled to

2378-460: The operator (now '100' in the UK, '0' in Canada/U.S.) and ask for a specific free number. In the U.S., the caller would ask for a number like "Zenith 12345" (some areas used "Enterprise" or "WX" instead of "Zenith"). In the UK, the caller would ask the operator to ring "Freephone" and a name or number (such as "Freephone Crimebusters" to pass on tips about a crime to the constabulary). In either case,

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2436-431: The operator would look up the corresponding geographic number from a list and place the call with charges reversed. A Zenith number was typically available from a predefined area, anything from a few nearby cities to a province or state, and was listed in local directories in each community from which the subscriber was willing to accept the charges for inbound calls. Until the introduction of InWATS toll-free service by

2494-530: The operator, two new prefixes 0800 (an automated toll-free service which became "Freefone") and 0345 (a shared-cost service marketed as "Lo-Call" because initially its rates resembled those of local calls) could be reached by direct dial. Cable and Wireless used 0500 and 0645, in much the same way, just a few years later. A toll-free vanity number , custom toll-free number, or mnemonic is easy to remember; it spells and means something or it contains an easily recognized numeric pattern. An easily remembered number

2552-484: The rapid rise of the Internet was generally killing off all smaller online services and bulletin board systems , and online systems were generally seen as antiquated. Apple was never able to turn a profit on eWorld, and shut it down after a little over a year of operation, before it was able to supplant AppleLink. Subsequently, Apple moved all of its services and replaced all of the AppleLink content. The first step involved

2610-458: The same final 6 digits as before. While the numbers had been portable, the 0500 range had been closed to new allocations since 1997/98. 0500 numbers had six more digits after the prefix. 0800 numbers can have six or seven digits after the prefix. 0808 numbers have seven digits after the prefix. Freephone numbers in the range 08081 570000 to 570999 are blocked out by Ofcom for use as fictitious telephone numbers . Toll-free numbers in

2668-435: The same number to reach a business subscribing to a number, and at no charge to the calling party. However, only a limited number of countries participate . In order to participate, countries must agree on the amount of revenue they will retain (to cover their costs of network transport) while still forwarding sufficient revenue to cover the recipient's costs of subscribing. A Universal International Freephone Number ( UIFN )

2726-584: The service include 822, 880 through 887, and 889. The original Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS) is obsolete. North American toll-free numbers are controlled by an intelligent network database ( SMS/800 ) in which any toll-free number may be directed to any geographic telephone number under the control of any of various RespOrgs . Direct inward dialing and toll-free number portability are supported; various providers offer gateways which receive free phone calls on PRI lines and deliver them to voice over IP or pager users. Toll free numbers usually capture

2784-580: The system to other customers, GEIS developed both DOS and eventually Windows based versions of the client software and sold the system as "DealerTalk" starting in 1986, aiming at the Apple model of manufacturers using the system to communicate with their dealers. All the systems, including the AppleLink community, were united behind the scenes as part of GEIS' worldwide Quik-Comm E-mail service and could exchange mail with each other and all GEIS mail customers, using addresses like MICHAEL@APPLELINK or JOHNDOE@GEIS. This

2842-480: The telephone number of the caller for billing purposes through automatic number identification , which is independent of caller ID data and functions even if caller ID is blocked. Universal International Freephone Service is an international service, assigned the country code 800 by the International Telecommunication Union . The intention is that any customer in the world can dial

2900-522: The users). For some years prior to the discontinuation of the system, GEIS maintained a number of employees on the campus of Apple's Cupertino, California , headquarters, co-located with the Apple On-Line Services organization. Repeated attempts to negotiate a lower cost failed, and Apple management chafed at paying for a service that had no obviously measurable income. Eventually Apple approached Steve Case of Quantum Computer Services , who ran

2958-503: Was a set of public bulletin boards , and the ability to use email via the service—although initially only between AppleLink users. File transfer for drivers and system software was another important role, and for this Apple created the AppleLink Package format to combine and compress the two forks of a Macintosh file into one for storage and sending. Apple also developed their Communications Control Language ( CCL ) for AppleLink,

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3016-603: Was introduced by AT&T in 1966 (US intrastate) and 1967 (US interstate) as an alternative to operator-assisted collect calling and manual "Zenith" or "Enterprise" numbers. This Inward Wide Area Telephone Service (InWATS) allowed calls to be made directly from anywhere in a predefined area by dialling the prefix 1‑800- and a seven-digit number. The system initially provided no support for Automatic Number Identification and no itemised record of calls, instead requiring subscribers to obtain expensive fixed-rate lines which included some number of hours of inbound calling from

3074-469: Was later expanded to include Internet mail addresses. Eventually, the GEIS products were renamed BusinessTalk and after a complete system rewrite and creation of their own Macintosh client program (never incorporated into AppleLink), again renamed BusinessTalk System 2000 in 1992. During this time the system, with the Windows client, also became the foundation for Microsoft's first on-line service for developers,

3132-463: Was never Apple's intellectual property to share with Quantum. It was handed over anyway as part of the Macintosh source code, thanks to John Sculley , Apple's CEO at the time. Although no legal action was ever pursued, this further soured the technical relationship between GEIS and Apple in the final years of AppleLink, especially since by then AOL was competing with GEIS' own consumer service, GEnie . As

3190-403: Was no means to place a toll-free call to another country. Despite its limitations (and the relatively high cost of long distance in that era), the system was adequate for the needs of large volume users such as hotel chains , airlines and rental car firms which used it to build a truly national presence. For small regional businesses who received few long-distance calls, the original InWATS

3248-471: Was prohibitively expensive. As a fixed-rate bulk service requiring special trunks, it was suited only to large volume users. Modern toll-free service became possible when telephone companies replaced their electro-mechanical switching systems with computerized switching systems. This allowed toll-free calls to be routed based on instructions located in central databases. In the United States, AT&T engineer Roy P. Weber from Bridgewater, New Jersey patented

3306-514: Was secret, but exposed to GEIS' e-mail network as any other AppleLink address. To avoid a deluge of incoming mail resulting from the publicity of the event, Apple set up a number of obvious " honeypot " addresses not really used by the Shuttle crew, such as STS43@APPLELINK. Most of the well-wishers' e-mail went there, rather than to the real Atlantis address. Quantum retained rights to the AppleLink Personal Edition software, and released

3364-537: Was ultimately forced to obtain a different number, 1-800-FOR-MERCEDES. A company renting 1‑800‑RED‑CROSS at a premium price to individual local Red Cross chapters as "shared use" was less fortunate; the Federal Communications Commission reassigned that number to the American Red Cross as an emergency response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Shared use can be used as

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