1992: Bush’s Toll-Free Number: Good Call or Political 911?

Posted on April 19, 2011 by smsgov

On September 12, 1992, the New York Times published an article about the first time an American President obtained and used his own Toll-Free phone number.

NY Times Wrote: It is too early to tell whether it will do much for President Bush, but it definitely ushered in a new era of respectability for 800 numbers.

On Thursday night [1992], Mr. Bush purchased five minutes of prime time on four networks — ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN — to inform the viewing public about his “Agenda for American Renewal,” as he titled his economic plans. The commercial, taped in the Oval Office, showed a serious-looking President sitting on his desk and speaking directly into the camera.

“At this pivotal point in history we’re faced with two very different philosophies, two very different agendas and a very real choice,” Mr. Bush said at the end of the advertisement. Then an 800-number appeared on the screen for viewers to call to receive a free copy of his plans. Year of the Pamphlet

Read the rest of the article on the NYTimes website:

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/12/us/1992-campaign-political-memo-bush-s-toll-free-number-good-call-political-911.html

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Is Someone Hoarding Those ‘800’ Numbers?

Posted on November 16, 2009 by smsgov

A Flashback article from the NY times, 1995

The telephone industry isn’t just running low on local phone numbers. Supplies of toll-free “800” numbers are also dwindling, creating the kind of demand more often associated with hard-to-get tickets — say, for the World Series or a big rock concert.

An explosion in the number of toll-free services, led by electronic pagers, has caused most of the nearly eight million possible “800” numbers to be taken. So last year, the telephone industry agreed to make the prefix 888 an additional toll-free designator, beginning in April 1996. But the surge in demand for toll-free numbers has forced the starting date to be moved forward one month, to March 1.

In June, worried that the remaining “800” numbers might have to be rationed before new “888” numbers were available, the Federal Communications Commission ordered a freeze on the number of organizations — including telephone companies and corporate users of the numbers — allowed to draw “800” numbers directly from a central data base.

The next week, 113,000 of the toll-free numbers were claimed, about three times the normal weekly average.

Rumors began flying that AT&T and MCI were hoarding “800” numbers, fearing the confusion that is expected early next year until consumers get used to the “888” prefix and businesses update the software in their automated switchboards to recognize the new prefix.

Both companies deny the rumors, saying that they are required to assign “800” numbers to customers within 45 days or return them to the data base.

The F.C.C. has since capped the total of “800” numbers that can be claimed by all parties each week at 30,000, and the agency has begun an investigation of the causes of that June run on toll-free numbers.

“When all is said and done,” said Kathleen B. Levitz , deputy bureau chief of the F.C.C.’s common carrier bureau, “it just may be that there has been an explosion in demand for 800 numbers.” LAURENCE ZUCKERMAN

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