Toll Free Number ##VERIFIED##

Toll free numbers are telephone numbers with distinct three-digit codes that can be dialed from landlines with no charge to the person placing the call. Such numbers allow callers to reach businesses and individuals out of the area without being charged a long-distance fee for the call.

Toll free numbers are particularly common for customer-service calling. Toll free service has traditionally provided potential customers and others with a free and convenient way to contact businesses. Wireless callers, however, will be charged for the airtime minutes used during a toll free call unless they have an "unlimited calling" plan.

Toll Free Number

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Toll free numbers are numbers that begin with one of the following three-digit codes: 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844 or 833. Although 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844 and 833 are all toll free codes, they are not interchangeable. Dialing a number using a 1-800 prefix would reach a different recipient than dialing that number using a 1-888 prefix. Calls to each toll free number are routed to a particular local telephone number.

The FCC assigns most toll free numbers on a first-come, first-served basis. Toll free subscribers choose entities called "Responsible Organizations" or "RespOrgs" to reserve numbers on their behalf and to manage and administer the appropriate records for the toll free subscribers. Many RespOrgs also provide toll free service. RespOrgs have access to a toll free database that contains information regarding the status of all toll free numbers. Somos, Inc., administrator of the toll free number database, certifies RespOrgs.

The FCC made certain numbers in the 833 toll free code available via an auction. The 833 Auction is an experiment to determine how to use competitive bidding to most effectively assign toll free numbers. For more information about the 833 Auction, visit

You can contact a RespOrg if you want to obtain a toll free number. If you need help locating a RespOrg, call or text the Somos Help Desk at 1-844-HEY SOMOS (1-844-439-7666), or visit www.somos.com/find-a-toll-free-number for assistance.

The FCC sets the rules for getting and using toll free numbers. The FCC requires that toll free numbers be portable, meaning that a subscriber can "port," or move, their number to a new RespOrg when changing service providers.

FCC rules prohibit RespOrgs from "warehousing" toll free numbers. A RespOrg may not legally reserve a toll free number without having an actual toll free subscriber for whom the number is being reserved. RespOrgs who warehouse numbers are subject to penalties.

A toll-free telephone number or freephone number 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.

Originally,[when?] 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.

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.[2][3]

Both systems were similar in concept. The calling party would ring 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).[4]

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.

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 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 was no means to place a toll-free call to another country.

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 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.[6] 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 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 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.[7] 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 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 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.

Shared use can be used as 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 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.

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 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 ". The official name is "" (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.

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 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[27]) and begin with the prefixes 0800 or 0808. The most commonly used prefix is 0800, first used in November 1985.[28] 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.[29][30] Most mobile phone operators had charged for such calls previously, with Orange being 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.[31] 006ab0faaa