A Quick Look At The History of 800 Numbers

What we call today as toll free numbers or 800 numbers are used for generating business by companies all companies including small, medium and large companies alike and they are also used to provide presales and post-sales customer support for various products and services across the globe. Toll free numbers have introduced a new face to the customer relationship management and today it is used as an icon for building customer trust because it serves as a free means for the customers to communicate with the companies from which they have hired a service or purchased a product.

Today, even an organization that is operated by a single individual has an 800 number and this was not the case when the 800 numbers were introduced in 1967 by AT & T network so as to reduce the need for a large number of human operators needed to process the increasing number of collect calls from the customers to service providers. The concept of collect calls served as the basis for today’s toll free numbers. When it is a collect call each call involved an operator who had to confirm the collect call with the recipient of the collect call.

The original form of toll free phone service was called Inward Wide Area Telephone Service or INWATS and interestingly it was not software giant or other fortune 500 companies that tried this to new system. This service was first used by the Sheraton Hotel Chain and the first INWATS facility was installed in 1970.

Today’s modern version of the toll free numbers was called the Data Base Communication Processing Method by its inventor Roy Weber. Contrary to what we would presume, this did not catch on like wildfire it was very slow to get into the market and it took some time for people to understand and appreciate the importance and the potential of this new technology.

Until 1984 AT & T owned all 800 numbers and the situation changed in 1991 with the initiative of FCC to bring diversity and competition in this area. It was possible for people to move from one carrier to the other without having to change their original numbers. Many telephone network carriers started offering the 800 numbers as well, giving a number of options for the subscribers to choose from. The latest trend in the toll free numbers is called vanity numbers. Vanity numbers have alpha-numeric characters; if you used a vanity number then you can spell out your business name as part of your contact number such as 1-800-TOLLFREE.

Today there are number of toll free phone service providers and when you select your toll free phone service provider you must make sure that your service provider is capable of both controlling and assigning toll free numbers. Today with toll free numbers you can get a lot of other value add features such as caller ID unblock, caller ID with name, 3-way calling etc., so you must find a service provider who is capable of providing you with all the latest features possible like Tollfreenumber.org. Check out www.tollfreenumber.org for their exciting features.