1-800 numbers... so today at work I was looking at a business card someone had given me and saw the toll free number, and it got me to thinking, we see 1-800 numbers all the time now days, but when did they start being used? who thought of the idea to use 800 as the toll free code? and is there any reason 800 was chosen, why not 700? So yep I had to see what I could dig up on this subject which is why it is today's installment of are you pondering?
So it turns out AT&T invented toll free calling all the way back in 1967, they created it to reduce the number of operators they needed to process the massive amount of collect calls they were processing for businesses. They call the system IN-WATS which should for Inward Wide-Area Telephone Service (yeah you think they could have come up with a simpler name). The Hotel industry was one of the first to jump on board with the new system of calling. The Wats call center took off in popularity and was centered in Omaha, Nebraska. Though overall the system ended up failing and was replaced by the 800 number system in 1980, this system which we still use today was invented by Roy P. Weber and is U.S. Patent No. 4,191,860... offically called "Data Base Communication Call Processing Method" but I prefer the 1-800 call name :P
Until 1984 AT&T assigned all the 1-800 numbers, in 1984 MCI jumped into the 800 number calling, and in 1991 the FCC decided to pass a new rule that made 800 numbers no longer associated to a single phone carrier company. When they did this it allowed businesses to switch telephone carries and keep the same number, kind of like how we can keep our same cell phone numbers today if we switch from Verizon to Sprint. It was also around this time that they allowed businesses to select their own 800 numbers so we started seeing the 1800 number that spell out business names or catchy words like 1-800-IAMCOOL.
Also over time they have had to expand from just 800 numbers, 888, 877, 866 are also toll free numbers. There are also 900 numbers, but they are much different than 800 numbers if you use a 900 number you are charged higher amounts.. not the free call we get with 800 numbers (which are only free for us, the business using them gets the charge, since its like calling collect.)
Toll free numbers also work from Canada... and can be dialed from some other companies but are not free. If you dial a toll free number from a pay phone, the company using the number gets charged an additional fee (intersting?). There are a few toll free international numbers, but not many. (probably because the fees would be huge for the company recieving the calls... :P a prank caller could really hit them hard I guess)
So the one thing I couldn't find out through all my sources I looked up... why they picked 800.. but as you'll see in my bonus facts most of the world agreed 8 is a good number for it...
Bonus Facts:
Around the world toll free prefixs!
Australia's toll free numbers use 13, or 1300
Argentian, Austria, Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, France, Finland, Germany, Indonesia, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey - 0800
Chile, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hong Kong, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Serbia - 800
Colombia - 018000
Denmark, Hungray - 80
Dominican Republic - 1-200
Ecuador, Ireland, Isreal, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam - 1800
Japan has a bunch - 0120, 0800, 0077
Mexico 01800
New Zealand uses 0800 or 0508
Romania 08008
Russia, Ukraine 8 or 800
Sweeden - 020 or 0200
Spain 900
UK - 0500, 0800 or 0808
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