A new trend in the use of 800 numbers is drastically increasing the number of subscribers to toll free service. The new users? Families.
Personal use of toll free phone service has skyrocketed in the past five years. Adults are now routinely providing elderly parents on a fixed income with an 800 number. Parents are hooking their kids up with toll free service so they can keep in constant communication. And experts say this trend is not a passing fancy. Toll free service for personal use is here to stay.
Toll free numbers enable callers to reach businesses, organizations, and non-profits without having to pay for the call. This trend has been so successful that the available 1-800, 888, 877, and 866 numbers are decreasing while demand is growing at unprecedented rates. In fact, an average of 8,000 new subscribers sign up for toll free numbers every single day.
Toll free service has gone through several incarnations over the past four decades. First, 800 numbers were primarily used by big business. This is still the case—almost all of the Fortune 500 companies have an 800 number. Then, toll free service became more affordable and easy to obtain, causing a surge in use by small businesses, online companies, and not-for-profits. Now, personal use is all the rage.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the 800 Service Management System (SMS/800) both report that personal use of toll free numbers is on the rise. The popularity of the 1-800 number, introduced in the late 1960s, led the FCC to add the new pre-fixes 888 and 877 in the mid-1990s. When availability of those numbers became scarce in 2000, the 866 pre-fix was added to overcome the shortage. Now, eight years later, the supply is nearly depleted.
With supplies of available toll free numbers plummeting, experts are recommending that anyone wishing to obtain a toll free number secure one immediately. When obtaining numbers for use by children and elderly relatives, it is especially important that subscribers deal with reliable service providers. Companies like AT&T and Verizon quickly secure a number for any subscriber, offer low rates, and reliable fiber optic connections.
41 responses so far ↓
Gregory Baker // August 25, 2008 at 3:14 pm |
How do you use the free service
Mark White // August 26, 2008 at 11:28 pm |
They have to be clever, cunning, imaginative, dogged and wily, whereas society merely has to lean its weight a little.
Ronald Clark // August 26, 2008 at 11:36 pm |
Now all we need is a connection to the computer standard to!
Robert Williams // August 27, 2008 at 6:49 am |
HELLO – Sprint has starting doing this ages ago!!!!!!!!! With success!
Patrick Perez // August 27, 2008 at 1:35 pm |
use drums? use smoke signals?
Kevin Lewis // August 27, 2008 at 4:16 pm |
it’s a pity, advertisements say that 0800 numbers are free and when you start to use you realize that it’s not! And nobody told you before that if you call from mobile, you have to pay, from skype – to pay… it’s not fair!
Gregory Baker // August 27, 2008 at 7:05 pm |
This whole article is based on an incorrect assumption — that all calls cost the same. The huge majority of people have regular home phones, which do not have any sort of “all numbers are the same” plan. On top of that, not all mobile phone plans are the same. I’m a heavy mobile user, but my plan doesn’t have any special “all numbers are the same” plan, because the majority of my calls are local. The only thing that will kill 800 numbers, I think, is the end of the local/long distance distinction, which may happen, but not for the reasons the article lists.
Martin Powell // August 28, 2008 at 1:31 pm |
thanks – good thoughts
Shawn Simmons // August 28, 2008 at 10:51 pm |
very good
Sean Gonzales // August 29, 2008 at 8:38 pm |
You don’t know what your talking about.
Keith Murphy // August 29, 2008 at 8:43 pm |
I don’t know about this. Sounds to good to be true.
Johnny Russell // August 29, 2008 at 9:02 pm |
Got one for my grandma to call. She needs to savre all the money she can get with the ecomony being what it is. Poor old woman cant even affrd to pay her bills.
Charles Wilson // September 1, 2008 at 3:54 am |
Remember that time is money.
Harold Turner // September 2, 2008 at 7:02 pm |
It’s so funny I found this. I just started using a 1-800 so that I can give it to people I meet at clubs. I don’t want creepies using my real #… Anyone else using it for the same purpose?
Mark White // September 2, 2008 at 7:08 pm |
My ma’ has one. She’s in Tennessee and has telimarketers callin’ her all the day long so she hears from this guy to get a 800 # and she does. Now if someone gets ahold a her # she just goes ahead and changes it. Pretty clever I think.
Shawn Simmons // September 2, 2008 at 7:13 pm |
HOW DO I GET ONE FOR ME?
Ralph Cooper // September 2, 2008 at 7:32 pm |
8,000 new subscribers a day? Whoa!!
Samuel Bailey // September 2, 2008 at 7:54 pm |
So what you’re saying is that we need to get our numbers stat!?
Jerry Nelson // September 3, 2008 at 1:08 am |
Pressure makes diamonds.
Jerry Nelson // September 3, 2008 at 6:43 am |
If you’re not very clever you should be conciliatory.
Jose Young // September 4, 2008 at 11:59 am |
interesting article. much appreciated
Terry Morgan // September 5, 2008 at 10:19 pm |
Ah yes. Another flashback of my youth. Making free phone calls etc.
The xboxes and playstations only rob kids of these experiences.
Antonio Hayes // September 8, 2008 at 3:28 pm |
To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Terry Morgan // September 8, 2008 at 10:53 pm |
Why is abbreviation such a long word ?
Walter Mitchell // September 9, 2008 at 3:12 am |
how long will it take before the NSA starts using this, no more calling from phone booths, to hide your number
Craig Washington // September 10, 2008 at 8:46 pm |
now they just have to make it free to call in the united states
Craig Washington // September 10, 2008 at 10:03 pm |
Okay, I remember a trick back in high school that someone taught me but I’ve since forgot. They would pick up the phone, dial a number, and hang up the receiver a couple times. Several seconds later, the phone would ring continuously until someone picked it up. But there was no one on the other line. Anyone remember/know how to do that?
Justin Cook // September 11, 2008 at 12:43 am |
A wise man does not need advice and a fool won’t take it.
Paul Jackson // September 11, 2008 at 8:31 pm |
It’s good to be clever, but not to show it.
Chris Alexander // September 13, 2008 at 12:38 pm |
Bacteria is sometimes the only culture some people have.
Sean Gonzales // September 15, 2008 at 9:40 pm |
well said
Ryan Edwards // September 16, 2008 at 5:26 am |
If you want truly to understand something, try to change it.
Patrick Perez // September 22, 2008 at 3:22 pm |
I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.
Jimmy Diaz // September 24, 2008 at 1:33 am |
That’s the secret to life… replace one worry with another…
Christopher Anderson // September 24, 2008 at 2:26 am |
interesting article. much appreciated
800 Numbers for Personal Use? « Toll Free Service Management System News // November 28, 2008 at 2:39 pm |
[...] Continue the story… [...]
Robert Williams // February 25, 2009 at 6:02 pm |
Pressure makes diamonds.
Larry Hernandez // February 26, 2009 at 1:58 am |
I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.
Toll Free Home Phone Numbers? « Toll Free Service Management System News // May 30, 2009 at 6:03 am |
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800 Numbers // June 29, 2009 at 7:38 pm |
nice post. thanks!