This allowed toll-free calls to be routed based on instructions located in central databases. Modern toll-free service became possible when telephone companies replaced their electro-mechanical switching systems with computerized switching systems. As a fixed-rate bulk service requiring special trunks, it was suited only to large volume users.
All calls went to one central destination there was no means to place a toll-free call to another country.ĭespite its limitations (and the relatively high cost of long distance in that era), the system was adequate for the needs of large volume users such as hotel chains, airlines and hire car firms which used it to build a truly national presence.įor small regional businesses who received few long-distance calls, the original InWATS was prohibitively expensive.
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After competitive carriers were allowed to compete with AT&T in establishing toll-free service, the three digit exchange following the 800 prefix was linked to a specific destination carrier and area code the number itself corresponded to specific telephone switching offices and trunk groups. Early InWATS 800 calling lacked the complex routing features offered with modern toll-free service. The system initially provided no support for Automatic Number Identification and no itemised record of calls, instead requiring subscribers to obtain expensive fixed-rate lines which included some number of hours of inbound calling from a "band" of one or several U.S. This Inward Wide Area Telephone Service (InWATS) allowed calls to be made directly from anywhere in a predefined area by dialling the prefix 1‑800- and a seven-digit number.
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( August 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Īn automated toll-free service was introduced by AT&T in 1966 (US intrastate) and 1967 (US interstate) as an alternative to operator-assisted collect calling and manual "Zenith" or "Enterprise" numbers. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. More than a few established manual "Freephone" or "Zenith" numbers remained in use for many years after competing automated systems (0800 in UK, 1‑800 in U.S.) were deployed in parallel for new toll-free numbers. Until the introduction of InWATS toll-free service by the Bell System on and the Linkline (later "Freefone") 0800 services by British Telecom on 12 November 1985, manually ringing the operator was the standard means to place a toll-free call.
In either case, the operator would look up the corresponding geographic number from a list and place the call with charges reversed.Ī Zenith number was typically available from a predefined area, anything from a few nearby cities to a province or state, and was listed in local directories in each community from which the subscriber was willing to accept the charges for inbound calls. In the UK, the caller would ask the operator to ring "Freephone" and a name or number (such as "Freephone Crimebusters" to pass on tips about a crime to the constabulary). In the U.S., the caller would ask for a number like "Zenith 1‑2345" (some areas used "Enterprise" or "WX" instead of "Zenith", but in the same pattern of a free service name and a five-digit number). The calling party would ring the operator (now '100' in the UK, '0' in Canada/U.S.) and ask for a specific free number. and Canada, as well as the original manual 'Freephone' service introduced by the British Post Office in 1960. Prior to the development of automated toll-free service many telephone companies provided a manual version of caller free service.Įxamples of operator-assisted toll-free calling include the Zenith number introduced in the 1950s in the U.S. The operator had to secure acceptance of the charges at the remote number, or even transfer that decision to a long-distance operator, before manually completing the call.Ī few large businesses and government offices received large numbers of collect calls, which proved time-consuming for operators and the callers. Originally, a call billed to the called party had to be placed through a telephone company operator as a collect call, often long-distance.
The features of toll-free services have evolved as telephone networks have moved from electro-mechanical call switching to fully computerized stored program controlled networks.