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56-652: It was announced at the 2015 Toll-Free User Summit in Orlando, Florida, that the company, formerly known as SMS/800, Inc. , would be rebranding under the new name, Somos, Inc. On April 4, 2016, the Enhanced SMS/800 platform was launched and made available to Resp Orgs in order to provide additional functionality. Somos, Inc., administers the assignment of toll-free telephone numbers in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) This company has been designated by

112-509: 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

168-457: 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

224-565: A 24-hour basis. A project worker can call in news of any incident, threat or major activity to the Jackson office. The WATS operator there takes down the details and relays it to Atlanta if the event is of national importance. In the case of a threat or incident involving Federal laws, Jackson will notify the FBI and the Justice Department. Atlanta uses its national WATS line to notify SNCC groups around

280-404: A billion dollars in annual revenue ($ 5.35 billion in 2023 dollars) For outbound calls, the 1984 AT&T divestiture brought multiple competitors offering similar services using standard business telephone lines; the special WATS line was ultimately supplanted by other flat-rate offerings. The requirement that an inbound toll-free number terminate at a special WATS line or fixed-rate service

336-528: A fixed rate. The introduction of InWATS fortuitously fell around the same time as the early centralized, automated national airline and hotel reservation systems, including Sabre (American Airlines, 1963), Holidex (Holiday Inn, 1965) and Reservatron (Sheraton, 1969). Hundreds of local reservation numbers for a major chain could be replaced with one central number, backed by a national computerized reservation system. InWATS exchanges were assigned to Canada and other North American Numbering Plan countries, but

392-481: A growing number of 1‑800 numbers were being terminated at standard local business or residence lines and one number could be sent to multiple locations based on call origin, least-cost routing or time of day routing. RespOrgs were established in the U.S. in 1993 and Canada in 1994 to provide toll free number portability using the Service Management System ( SMS/800 ) database. Calls from Canada and

448-405: 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

504-464: 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

560-410: 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,

616-461: A required exam. It provides training materials and education in the U.S. Toll-free telephone service is a telecommunication service in which subscribers are assigned telephone number in NPAs 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, and 833. Calls to these numbers incur no toll charges for callers. The American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) first introduced 800 toll-free service in 1967. When AT&T

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672-539: 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

728-611: 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

784-472: 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

840-476: 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

896-594: Is a populous state and intrastate calls needed a separate toll-free number. The original InWATS system was supplanted by "Advanced 800 Service" in the 1980s. Modern systems eliminated requirements tying toll-free numbers to dedicated flat-rate inbound WATS lines. Direct inward dial , introduced in 1983, allowed one trunk to carry calls for multiple numbers. AT&T's monopoly on U.S. toll-free number routing ended in 1986, encouraging flexibility in order to match rivals Sprint and MCI . By 1989, fixed "bands" of coverage area had been largely replaced by distance-based billing,

952-570: 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),

1008-447: 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. Wide Area Telephone Service Wide Area Telephone Service ( WATS )

1064-416: 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

1120-539: 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

1176-466: The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1967, subscribers were issued a toll-free telephone number in a designated toll-free area code . Unlike a standard collect call or a call to a Zenith number , 1‑800 normally may be dialed directly with no live operator. Callers within a designated area could call without incurring a toll charge as the recipient paid for the calls at

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1232-607: 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

1288-542: 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

1344-479: The Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., activist organizations such as SNCC used WATS as a convenient way for eyewitnesses on the ground to convey information quickly. Notes from these phone calls were compiled into "WATS Line Reports" and mailed to civil rights leaders, the media, the Justice Department, and others involved in the events. WATS was also how organizations communicated with local leaders across

1400-752: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to administer the Service Management System (SMS) Database for Responsible Organizations (Resp Orgs) and service control points (SCPs), as defined by the Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs) Part 52 Section 101, and stipulated in 800 Service Management System (SMS/800) Functions Tariff - FCC No. 1 . Somos operates various web interfaces over a virtual private network for Resp Orgs to register toll-free telephone numbers. Somos admits and registers Resp Orgs according to qualification criteria including

1456-413: 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

1512-510: 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

1568-518: The 20th century. A form of toll-free telephone service in North America was the Zenith number , published in distant cities from where a company expected or desired frequent customer calls. Published as "Zenith" and a four- or five-digit number, these collect calls required operator assistance. The subscriber of the service was charged for the call. With "inward WATS", introduced for interstate calls by

1624-471: The U.S., intrastate and interstate, could terminate at the same 1‑800 number, even via different carriers. Vanity numbers became easier to obtain as a toll-free exchange prefix was no longer tied to a geographic location. By the 21st century, Voice over IP placed toll-free and foreign exchange numbers into the hands of even the smallest users, to whom dedicated inbound lines under the original InWATS model would have been prohibitively expensive. During

1680-607: 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

1736-569: 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

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1792-477: 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

1848-609: 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

1904-565: 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

1960-482: The country. A "Bay Area Friends of SNCC" newsletter in 1965 described WATS: The WATS (Wide Area Telephone Service) line is the heart of all SNCC security and communications. For a flat monthly rate, an unlimited number of calls can be dialed directly to any place in the country — or the state — depending on what line one uses. The Jackson office has a state-wide line, the Atlanta office has the national WATS line. Both run on

2016-491: 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

2072-808: 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

2128-483: The notable early adopters in late 1969, was hard-wired into St. Louis area code 314 ; 1‑800‑HOLIDAY at that time could not be a U.S. number if the 1‑800‑465 prefix was hard-wired to Thunder Bay 's area code 807 . Any attempt to call a foreign 1‑800 gave a pre-recorded error, "the number you have dialed is not available from your calling area." Like the OutWATS service, AT&T's InWATS

2184-460: 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,

2240-431: 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

2296-530: 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

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2352-540: The original InWATS in each country accepted domestic calls only. Initially 1‑800‑NN2‑XXXX numbers were U.S. intrastate and specific prefixes (such as 1‑800‑387 Toronto and 1‑800‑267 Ottawa) were assigned to Canada. In the 1970s, AT&T's internal routing guides included separate U.S. and Canadian 1-800 exchange maps which looked much like area code maps as each geographic area code had one or more specific freephone exchange prefixes. Sheraton 's 800‑325‑3535, one of

2408-458: 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

2464-435: 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 )

2520-584: 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

2576-480: 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

2632-483: Was a flat-rate long-distance service for customer dial-type telecommunications in the service areas of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). The service was between a given customer phone (also known as a "station") and stations within specified geographic rate areas, employing a single telephone line between the customer location and the serving central office . Each access line could be arranged for outward (OUT-WATS) or inward (IN-WATS) service, or both. WATS

2688-419: Was also rendered obsolete by the 1980s due to intelligent network capability and technological improvement in the 800-service. A toll-free number may now terminate at a T-carrier line, at any standard local telephone number or at one of multiple destinations based on time of day, call origin, cost or other factors. For Outbound WATS, the United States was divided into geographical Bands 0 through 5. Band zero

2744-579: Was divided into intrastate and interstate, with interstate calls priced into five or six "bands" of calling. This favored placement of US national call centers in low-population Midwestern states such as Nebraska , whose central location meant a carefully situated "band 3" number reaching halfway across the US in every direction could potentially reach 47 states. A San Diego call center would be less fortunate; even with "band 6" (the most expensive lines), its national number would be unreachable to millions as California

2800-504: Was intrastate calling and bands 1 through 5 (or 6) were interstate calls that were progressively further from the originating number. Historically, the higher band number carried a higher price per month or per minute. These lines could be used for outbound long-distance only; not local. In the U.S., interstate WATS lines could not be used for intrastate calls, and vice versa. With wider availability of inexpensive long distance using regular business lines, OutWATS service became obsolete late in

2856-603: 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

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2912-491: Was introduced by the Bell System in 1961 as a long-distance flat-rate plan by which a business could obtain a special line with an included number of hours ('measured time' or 'full-time') of long-distance calling to a specified area. These lines were most often connected to private branch exchanges in large businesses. WATS lines were the basis for the first direct-dial toll-free 1-800-numbers (intrastate in 1966, interstate in 1967); by 1976, WATS brought AT&T Corporation

2968-403: 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

3024-471: 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

3080-524: Was the only Interexchange carrier , local exchange carriers automatically routed all toll-free calls directly to an AT&T point of presence without performing a translation from the toll-free number to the terminating telephone number. The LECs routed the calls to AT&T based on the first three digits (800) of the dialed number. AT&T then performed all number translations and service area validation screenings. Toll-free telephone number A toll-free telephone number or freephone number

3136-462: 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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