Goverment Considers Rationing Toll Free Numbers

The force behind the demand for toll-free numbers is not only the traditional business use: a growing market is comprised of residential customers. If rationing is implemented, obtaining a new toll free number will be more difficult than ever before.

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Pfizer’s Toll Free Help Line

Pfizer has launched a new toll free number as part of a program to provide people with free prescription drugs for up to a year to people who have lost their jobs and health insurance. To be eligible, people must have lost their job since January 1st and have been on Pfizer drugs for three months or more before that. Patients can call a toll-free number, 866-706-2400, to sign up.

New Toll Free Supply

How many good, memorable, toll free phone numbers remain available for new subscribers? This is an issue of constant concern for those of us in the telecommunications industry. With a limited number of numerical possibilities and increased interest in obtaining the remaining numbers, the finite supply could eventually be depleted. But the good news is that there is an expected turn-about within the next year or so. New numbers–the new 855 area code–are expected to be released to re-nourish the dwindling supply.

The Difficulties In Securing An 800 Phone Number Have Increased

With the fixed amount of available 800 numbers shrinking fast, subscribers who waited to secure toll free service are now learning why it is so difficult to obtain a number.

Industry insiders say the soaring popularity of toll free service combined with the failure of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to release additional numbers have created a tight supply of 800 numbers in heavy demand.

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Imperiled Market Requires New Toll Free Numbers

A reminder of the need for new toll free area codes: more than two-thirds of the available supply of 800, 888, 877, and 866 numbers are taken and millions of new subscribers are registering every year. Business owners who wait much longer to obtain a number might find themselves out of luck. In a competitive market, a toll free number is a valuable commodity for every business. To manage fair distribution of the numbers remaining, federal agencies have cracked down on the illegal sale of 800 numbers and the hoarding, or stockpiling, of numbers and this is helping somewhat. The real solution, many say, is the release of reserved toll free numbers.

Working With Reputable Toll Free Providers is Key

Experts in the telecommunications industry have regularly advised that anyone looking to secure a toll free number should find a reputable provider with flexible policies, access to good numbers, and an educated staff. When looking for an existing, available, toll free number–or if interested in learning how to obtain new numbers once they are released–this advice is important to remember. Toll free plans are a benefit to any business and subscriber IF they are obtained through a provider with a solid reputation.

New Numbers Could Stall Embargo

It is a relief to hear the buzz that new toll free phone numbers will likely be released within a year or two. Telecommunications industry sources say this new supply of numbers could thwart an embargo on new toll free phone service in the United States. Facing a severe shortage of available 800-numbers coupled with a skyrocketing demand for toll free service and an emerging black market for 800 numbers, insiders say officials felt they may have needed to impose an embargo. But with an expected turn-about, the embargo may not be necessary.

Toll Free Numbers Face Possible Embargo in the U.S.A.

Telecommunications industry sources now say an unthinkable embargo on new toll free phone service in the United States is a real possibility within the next year. Facing a severe shortage of available 800-numbers, a skyrocketing demand for toll free service and an emerging black market for 800 numbers, insiders say officials feel they are left with no choice but to impose an embargo.

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Triggerfish: Concerning or Useful Tool?

The Justice Department’s electronic surveillance manual explicitly suggests that triggerfish may be used to avoid restrictions in statutes like CALEA that bar the use of pen register or trap-and-trace devices—which allow tracking of incoming and outgoing calls from a phone subject to much less stringent evidentiary standards—to gather location data. “By its very terms,” according to the manual, “this prohibition applies only to information collected by a provider and not to information collected directly by law enforcement authorities.Thus, CALEA does not bar the use of pen/trap orders to authorize the use of cell phone tracking devices used to locate targeted cell phones.”

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Toll Free Shortage Causes Scare, Options Considered

Thirteen years after the federal government rationed the dwindling supply of toll free numbers, reports are circulating that rationing will once again be implemented. Severe shortages of 800 numbers are forcing these extreme measures as a means of protecting the limited remaining supply.

Read more here.