Toll-free telephone number
A toll-free, Freecall, Freephone, 800, 0800 or 1-800 number is a special telephone number which is free to the calling party, and instead the telephone carrier charges the called party the cost of the call. A toll-free number is assigned from a special dialing prefix range (also known as area code) such as 1-800.
The price of the call to the called party is usually based on factors such as the amount of usage, the number experiences, the cost of the trunk lines to the facility, and possibly a monthly flat rate service charge.
History
'Freephone' services appeared in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, with the Post Office introducing such a facility in 1960.[1] A toll-free service was originated in the United States on May 2, 1967 by AT&T as an alternative to collect calling and to reduce the need for operators. AT&T referred to the service as IN-WATS, or Inward Wide-Area Telephone Service (see WATS lines). The first company to use toll-free lines hosted numbers for major companies. Americana Hotels, Budget Rent a Car, Hyatt Hotels, Marriott Hotels, Roadway Inns, Sheraton Hotels, and Quality Inn were a few of the major companies hosted. They grew very quickly but still went out of business. When this happened, all the major players reacted by leasing space in and behind that original Call Center location (93rd and Bedford in Omaha, Nebraska) in strip malls so they could continue to answer their toll-free calls and also rehire the already-trained staffing and management. Northwestern Bell and AT&T dedicated staff to the 'Res City' area and their staff actually had offices located in the same strip malls to help make the transition and service the accounts going forward. That corner of 93rd and Bedford became known as 'Res City' because of all the Call Centers taking reservations there.
As the Call Centers continued to compete for the same talent pool, the larger chains relocated into buildings specifically built for them near the area while others moved outside of the state to avoid the direct competition for staffing.
Northwestern Bell and AT&T continued to cater to the businesses in Omaha and would activate service within 24 hours for clients in Omaha, giving Omaha a major advantage over other locations that would have to wait weeks for service. In 1983, Northwestern Bell and AT&T in conjunction with Telesystems and First Data Resources/WATS Marketing, developed a method to use Direct Inward Dialing (DID) to handle traffic so Call Centers no longer had to have dedicated lines or trunk groups as they are called, to handle each telephone number. This was a major improvement in Call Center call flow design and this type of called number identification is still used by Call Centers today.
Roy P. Weber from Bridgewater, New Jersey was the inventor of the second-generation 800 toll-free number system in 1978. Weber's U.S. Patent No. 4,191,860 was filed July 13, 1978 and issued March 4, 1980 and assigned to AT&T. AT&T started to use this new technology from the Weber patent in 1982. Weber's invention was called 'Data Base Communication Call Processing Method' ... more commonly called today a 'Toll-Free Call' or '800 Call'.[2]
Growth of 800 toll-free numbers as a business tool
From 1967 to the AT&T breakup in 1984, AT&T had an absolute monopoly on assigning 800 numbers to subscribing customers. Billing during that period was based on average hours usage per line per month. This type of billing required users to adjust their active lines based on actual peak hour usage to avoid buying hours at higher low tier rates. Usage would average 13-15 cents per minute depending on the traffic being billed.
From 1984 to 1993 Toll-Free customers were locked into a system that led them to the telephone carrier like AT&T or MCI that assigned them their 800 number. To increase competition, the FCC, in 1991, ordered the implementation of 800-number portability by May 1, 1993. 800 Number Portability means that toll-free numbers are not associated with a particular telephone carrier such as AT&T or MCI. 800 subscribers can switch to another carrier without changing their toll-free number. Before toll-free number portability, toll-free subscribers were locked into their carriers. They could not change those carriers without changing their 800 numbers. Starting in the early 90s, Toll-Free 800 Service became a viable business tool with the use of Vanity Numbers such as 1-800-FLOWERS. With these changes, rates have continued to fall and the majority of large users are now buying toll-free services for less than 2 cents per minute. Toll-free has become so popular that the 800 area code ran out of available numbers, so additional area codes (currently, 855, 866, 877, 888) were added to meet increased demand.
In 1985, British Telecom in the United Kingdom started using 0800 (Freefone) and 0845 (local-rate) numbers.[3]
Toll-free vanity number for branding & direct response
A toll-free vanity number, custom toll-free number, or mnemonic is a 1-800 telephone number that is easy to remember because it spells something and means something like 1-800-FED-INFO. A vanity number, being a phoneword, is easier to remember than a numerical phone number such as 1-866-348-7934. Businesses use easy recognizable 1-800 vanity numbers as both a branding and a direct response tool in their advertising (radio, television, print, outdoor, etc.).
Vanity numbers have some disadvantage for users of some advanced mobile devices. Some smartphones do not have the apportioned letters on the keys used for dialing, so one is unable to do alphabetic dialing without some other cross-reference to the actual phone number. This can be overcome by phonewords also being accompanied by the actual numeric phone number, allowing users of such smartphones to dial using the numeric phone number.
North America
Toll-free numbers in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) are sometimes called "One-800 numbers" after the original area code which was used to dial them. They include the area codes 800 since 1967, 888 (since 1996), 877 (since 1998), 866 (since 2000) and 855 (since 2010). Area codes reserved for future expansion include 844, 833, 822, 880 through 887, and 889.
Some regular area codes may be deceptively similar to toll-free prefixes (e.g., 801, 818, 860, etc.). These similarities have also been exploited by fraudsters in international locations that can be direct-dialed with what appear at first glance to be domestic area codes, including 809, 829, and 849, which are official prefixes for the Dominican Republic and 876 which is the area code for Jamaica. Toll-free numbers are also sometimes confused with 900-numbers, for which the telephone company bills the callers at rates far in excess of long-distance service rates for services such as recorded information or live chat.
These toll-free numbers can normally be called from any phone in Canada or the US, though the owner (and sometimes the provider) can put restrictions on their use. Sometimes they accept calls only from either Canada or the US, or even only from certain states or provinces. Some are not accessible from payphones. Calls from payphones assess the toll-free owner an additional fee in the USA as mandated by the FCC. Although toll-free numbers are not accessible internationally, many phone services actually call through the USA, and in this case the toll-free numbers become available. Examples of these services are the MCI Worldphone international calling card and Vonage internet telephone. However, many calling card services charge their own fee when their toll-free numbers are used to make calls, or when their toll-free numbers are used from pay phones.
When a NANP telephone number is written or printed as an international number, the number should be prefixed by a "+1" and a space, e.g.: +1 555-555-5555. The groups of digits within the NANP number should be visually separated by dashes, spaces or periods per ITU-T Rec. E.123 to make them easier to recognize and remember. However, when writing toll-free numbers that are not accessible from other countries, in order to make it clear that the initial 1 is not a country code, the plus-sign (+) and space should not be used, e.g. 1-800-xxx-yyyy. Restrictions (such as the number is not available from pay phones, cell phones, Canada, or other countries) should also be stated with any listing, but often are not. Although phone companies do not charge the caller for any toll-free number, charges may be billed by the recipients of these calls by some other method.
From many countries (such as the UK), US toll-free numbers can be dialed, but the caller first gets a recorded announcement that the call is not free; in fact, on many carriers, the cost of calling a 'toll-free' number can be higher than to a normal number.
US toll-free numbers could at one time be accessed from certain other NANP countries on a paid basis by replacing the 800 by 880, 888 by 881, and 877 by 882. Thus, to reach 1-800-xxx-yyyy from a NANP country where it was blocked, 1-880-xxx-yyyy could be dialed. This is no longer true; areas codes 880, 881 and 882 have since been reclaimed for future use.
In addition, US toll-free numbers may be accessed free of charge regardless of the caller's location by some IP telephone services.
How toll-free calls are handled by operators
In the US and Canada, both interexchange carriers (IXCs) such as Sprint/Nextel, AT&T, and Verizon, and Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) such as Verizon and AT&T offer toll-free services.
The format of the toll-free number is called a non-geographic number, in contrast to telephone numbers associated with households which are geographic. (Since the advent of cell phones (1985) and Internet phone services such as Vonage (2002) households can have any area code in the USA—it is still geographic in the sense that calls from that area code are considered local, but the recipient can be physically anywhere). In the latter case, it is possible to determine an approximate location of the caller from the area code (e.g. New York or London). Toll-free numbers in contrast could be physically located anywhere in the world.
When a toll-free number is dialed, the first job of the telephone operator is to determine where the actual physical destination is. This is achieved using the intelligent network capabilities embedded into the network.
In the simplest case, the toll-free number is translated into a regular geographic number. This number is then routed by the telephone exchange in the normal way. More complicated cases may apply special routing rules in addition such as Time of Day routing.
Toll-free numbers are specific to each country. For example, a Sweden Toll-free number starts 020 and in Ireland, Thailand or Australia a Toll-free number would start with 1800-xxxxxx.
Technical description of toll-free number routing in the U.S.
The IXCs generally handle traffic crossing boundaries known as LATAs (Local Access and Transport Areas). A LATA is a geographical area within the U.S. that delineates boundaries of the LEC. LECs can provide local transport within LATAs. When a customer decides to use toll-free service, they assign a Responsible Organization (RESPORG) to own and maintain that number. The RESPORG can be either the IXC that is going to deliver the majority of the toll-free services or an independent RESPORG.
Taking a closer look, when a toll-free number is dialed, each digit is analyzed and processed by the LEC. The toll-free call is identified as such by the service switching point (SSP). The SSP is responsible for sending call information to the service control point (SCP), routing the request through at least one signal transfer point (STP) in the Signalling System 7 (SS7) network. SS7 is a digital out-of-band method of transmitting signaling (call control) information in the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). The SS7 network is a packet-switched network carrying signaling data (setup and tear down of the call and services) separate from the circuit-switched bearer network (the payload of the telephone call) in the AIN services network. The SSP asks the SCP where to send the call.
The LEC will determine to which IXC that number is assigned, based on the customer's choice. Toll-free numbers can be shared among IXCs. The reason a customer might do this is for disaster recovery or for negotiating a better price among the carriers. For example, a customer may assign 50% of their traffic to Sprint and 50% to AT&T. It's all up to the customer.
Once the LEC determines to which IXC to send the call, it is sent to the IXCs point of presence (POP). The IXCs SCP must now determine where to send the call. When it comes to routing, the SCP is really the brains of the long distance network. Once the final determination of where the call is supposed to go is completed, the call is then routed to the subscriber's trunk lines. In a call center or contact center environment, the call is then typically answered by a telephone system known as an automatic call distributor (ACD) or private branch exchange (PBX).
The subsequent routing of the call may be done in many ways, ranging from simple to complex depending on the needs of the owner of the toll-free number. Some of the available options are:
- Time-of-Day (TOD) Routing. One of the simplest ways to influence the destination of the call is by using time-of-day routing. An example of using TOD routing would be a company with a call center on the east coast and a call center on the west coast. TOD routing would enable Follow the Sun routing. The east coast center opens first and calls are sent to that destination earlier in the day. As the time changes across the country, expanded coverage would be offered by the call center in the west.
- Day of Week (DOW) or Day of Year (DOY) Routing. Depending on the day of the week and business practices, not all call centers operate 24x7. Some centers may be closed for weekends or holidays. DOW routing allows alternate routing for calls that arrive on specific days. DOY routing allows for alternate routing on fixed holidays (example December 25).
- Area Code or Exchange Routing. Toll-free traffic may also be routed depending upon the location of the caller. For instance, if a company has call centers in the north and in the south, they may express a preference to have their southern callers speak with people in the southern call centers. Companies may also wish to take advantage of the difference in interstate rates versus intrastate rates. For example, the cost of a telephone call across multiple states may be less expensive than a call within a state, and as a result, the ability to route a call originating in Michigan to a call center outside of Michigan can save a company substantial amounts of money.
- Percentage Allocation Routing. If a company has multiple call centers, the company can choose to route calls across a number of call centers on a percentage basis. For example, an airline with ten call centers may choose to allocate 10% of all incoming traffic to each center.
- All-Trunks-Busy Routing. If at a given time, a company's trunk facilities can no longer handle the incoming traffic, an alternate destination may be chosen. This assists companies handling unexpected call volumes or during crisis times.
- Ring No Answer Routing. Some carriers have the ability to pull a call back into the network if the call is not answered. This provides for contingency routing for calls that ring and are not answered at the final destination.
- Emergency or Disaster Routing. Companies usually have some type of disaster plan to deal with both natural (e.g. floods, fires and earthquakes) and man-made (e.g. bomb threats) emergencies. IXCs can provide alternate destinations should any of these situations occur.
- Take Back and Transfer / Transfer Connect / Agent Redirect. If a company uses an ACD to facilitate the transfer, the ACD will remain in the call as long as the parties are on the phone. The drawback is that this uses up trunk capacity on the ACD (or VRU). This is called by a number of names including hair-pinning or tromboning. IXCs have the capability to allow a company to answer a call, provide a level of service, and then transfer the call to another location. These IXC features provide a level of transferring that is different from what is available via the ACD. There is usually a feature charge associated with this offering.
All of the above routing features are sometimes referred to as static routing features. These routes are put in place and are not usually changed. If changes are required, a customer usually has several options to make changes. A customer can call the IXC or an independent RESPORG directly via a special toll-free number to make changes, or a customer may be able to make changes through direct access to the network via a dedicated terminal provided by the IXC.
China
800 toll-free numbers
- 800 toll-free numbers are commonly called "800 免费电话". The official name is "被叫集中付费业务" (called party collect paid service), which means the cost of the call is borne not by the caller but by the party receiving the call.
- 800 toll-free numbers in China are ten-digit numbers beginning with "800". Three is no prefix before "800". (In US, "1" must be used before "800" when dialing from a landline).
- 800 toll-free numbers are not accessible to some mobile network subscribers.
400 toll-free numbers
- 400 service is called "主被叫分摊付费业务" (calling party and called party split-paid service), which means the calling party pays for the local access fee and the called party pays the toll (long distance) fee.
- 400 toll-free numbers in China are ten-digit numbers beginning with "400".
- 400 toll-free numbers can be accessed by all fixed-line and mobile phones.
- Callers have to bear local access charges from their service providers.
Differences between 800 and 400 numbers in China
- Calling a 800 number is free of charge, except when calling from mobile phones, in which case local call charges apply. Calling a 400 number incurs local access charge.
- 800 numbers are accessible to land-line and some mobile network subscribers, while 400 numbers are accessible to all land-line and mobile users.
Australia
Toll-Free (usually referred to as Free Call or Free Phone)
- Free Call numbers in Australia are ten-digit numbers beginning with the prefix "1800".[4]
- For all types, the recipient business pays for incoming toll charges.
- In some cases, 1800 numbers can be accessed from international lines.
- Callers to an 1800 number are not charged a connection fee from a domestic fixed line. Calls from a mobile phone may incur charges depending on the provider.
Local Rate numbers
A system similar to 1800 numbering exists where 6 or 10 digit numbers prefixed with 13 (one-three), 1300 or 1301 (colloquially one-three-hundred) can be called at local call rates regardless of location.
- Callers to 13 number are charged a "connection fee" by their telephone provider.
- 13 and 1300 numbers are often "smart routed" to the local outlet of chain stores or fast food premises. They may also be used by different companies in different regions.
Mobile phones
- Mobile callers are charged to phone a 1300 number or 1800 number, usually at their normal per minute rate.
- Smart routed 1800 or 13(00) numbers often do not work on mobile telephone due to issues with owners of the numbers barring incoming calls from mobile devices due to higher call charges associated with such calls.
- 13 numbers, 1300 numbers and 1800 numbers are relocatable across Australia, and can be transferred between different telecommunications suppliers.
- 13 numbers are a premium number scheme, subject to charges from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)[5] of approximately $10,000 per annum collected by the supplying carrier.
- Premium numbers, such as those that spell a word using keypad letters, are regularly auctioned by the ACMA[6]
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, toll-free telephone numbers are known as "Freefone" numbers and begin with the prefixes 0800, 0808 or the old C&W range of 0500. 0800 is the most common used prefix. Additionally, numbers in the range 0808 80xxxxx are reserved for not-for-profit helplines.
Since Orange UK introduced charges for dialing freephone numbers in December 2005, all British mobile networks (excluding giffgaff[7]) now charge for calls to freephone numbers, with certain limited exemptions (notably Childline). The UK mobile operators offer an alternative product to organisations who wish to provide toll-free services - 5-digit voice short codes which are sold through mobile aggregators.
Freephone numbers can be obtained for free, with calls charged from 1 penny per minute. Toll-free calls are also still available via the operator, although largely superseded by the 0800 system - a commonly seen phrase in advertisements was "Dial 100 and ask for freephone <business name>".
Universal International Freephone numbers
A Universal International Freephone Number (UIFN) is a worldwide toll-free "800 number" issued by the ITU. Like the 800 area code issued for the NANP in the U.S. and Canada, the call is free for the caller, and the receiver pays the charges (except on certain cell phones). UIFN uses ITU country code 800, so that no matter where the caller is, only the international access code (IAC), the UIFN country code (800) and the 8-digit UIFN need to be dialed. Currently, about 60 countries participate in the UIFN program.[8]
Freephone around the world
Countries around the world use different area codes to denote toll-free services in their own networks. Some examples are:
- In Argentina, the prefix for toll-free numbers is "0800", followed by seven digits (the first three of them are fixed for each operator, so you may know which carrier is serving the party you are calling). These numbers are called "0-800" (cero ochocientos) or "líneas gratuitas" (free lines). There is also a local-rate service, similar to the explained above for UK and Australia, named "0-810" (cero ochocientos diez), where the calling party pays the fee for a local call and the called party pays for the long distance fees.
- In Austria, the prefix for toll-free numbers is also "0800", but only followed by six digits. They are commonly referred to as "Null-achthunderter Nummern" (Zero-eighthundred numbers).
- In Belgium, the prefix "0800" is used for toll-free numbers, followed by 5 digits.
- In Brazil, the prefix is "0800" - although phone numbers are 8 digits - it is followed by 7 digits - 6 digits are being phased out. Toll-free numbers in Brazil can be accessed from any telephone (by default) in Brazil, with many exceptions. They can be accessed from outside Brazil only with a calling service (such as Vonage Internet phone or MCI Worldcom calling service) that accesses numbers from within the called country. Many toll-free numbers are not available from cell phones (usually blocked by the cell phone provider rather than the provider of the toll-free number in an effort to prevent low-price competition from calling card providers). Some toll-free numbers are not available from phones listed by the owner of the number, including many payphones. For example, the MCI Worldphone calling service blocks usage from the pay phones in international airports (Rio and São Paulo) and many downtown pay phones due to "excessive fraud" from those phones (July 2003). In addition, Brazil has a system of regular and international pay phones (designated with the symbol "DDD"). Toll-free numbers to international calling plans can be reliably used from non-DDD pay phones, as of 2005.
- In Bulgaria, the toll-free prefix is "0800" followed by a five-digit number (up to now, only 1XXXX and 20ххх numbers have been allocated). These numbers are called "Зелен номер" (Green Number) by BTC and "Зелена линия" (Green Line) by M-tel.
- In Chile, the toll-free prefix is "800" followed by a six-digit number. These numbers are called "número 800" (800 number). These numbers can not be accessed from abroad.
- In China, see section above.
- In Colombia, toll-free numbers start with 018000
- In Croatia, the prefix for toll-free numbers is "0800"
- In Czech Republic, the toll-free prefix is "800".[9]
- In Denmark telephone-numbers have eight digits. The toll-free numbers all begin with "80" followed by six further digits.
- In Dominican Republic, it's 1-200-xxxx (in addition to the area code).
- In Egypt, it starts with (800) followed by the number.
- In Ecuador, it starts with 1800 followed by 6-digit number. Some numbers have either regional or nationwide access. Calls from cellphones are only allowed by the operator Alegro which charges a few cents for these calls. PORTA and movistar does not allow the service.
- In France the "0800" prefix is used for toll-free numbers. They are also known as numéros verts (green numbers).
- In Finland, the toll-free prefix is "0800".
- In Germany, the toll-free prefix is "0800" followed by a seven-digit number. The "0801" prefix is already reserved for future use. The prefix was formerly "0130". Deutsche Telekom calls these numbers "freecall 0800", most Germans refer to it simply as "Null-achthunderter Nummern" (Zero-eighthundred numbers).
- In Greece, the toll-free prefix is "800" followed by a seven-digit number or "807" followed by a four-digit number, used for phonecard services only.
- In Hong Kong, toll-free numbers have "800" prefix [10]
- In Hungary, toll-free numbers have "80" prefix.
- In Iceland, the toll-free prefix is "800" followed by a four-digit number.
- In India, toll-free numbers prefix is "1800"
- In Indonesia, the toll-free prefix is "0800" followed by a seven-digit number.
- In Ireland, 1800-xxxxxx numbers are freephone, with the 1800 71xxxx reserved for services that expect unusually high volumes of calls e.g. radio station phone-in lines.[11]
- In Israel, toll-free numbers are prefixed with "1800" followed by 6 digits, "180" followed by 7 digits or "177-022" followed by 4 digits.
- In Italy, toll-free numbers are dialed with the "800" or "803" prefix and are commonly referred to as "Numero Verde" (green number) or "Linea Verde" (green line). The "Numeri Verdi" used to begin with "1678" and later with "167".
- In Japan, the prefixes "0120" and "0800" are officially assigned for toll-free numbers and are often referred to as "free dial" (フリーダイヤル) or "free call" (フリーコール). Several telephone carriers also provide toll-free services under their own company prefixes such as "0077" (these prefixes are also used for other tolled services, though).
- In South Korea, toll-free numbers are prefixed with "080" (not to be confused with "060" or "070", which are used for pay-per-call/pay-per-minute information services or digital home phone services). It is to be noted that not all numbers with the "080" prefix are toll-free when called from a mobile phone.
- In Latvia the prefix 8000-xx-xx is used for toll-free services. They are toll-free only when dialed from landlines, and charged the same as a land line when dialed from cell phones.
- In Malaysia the prefix is 1800-xxxxxx. Free if calling from land-line only. Calling from mobile phone network will considered as local call, charges varies from mobile network providers.
- In Mexico the prefix is 01-800.
- In New Zealand, both "0800" or "0508" prefixes are referred to variously and interchangeably as "free phone" or "toll-free". Originally these "Oh-eight-hundred" numbers were provided by Telecom NZ and "0508" by rival company Clear (now TelstraClear), although now both numbers can be provided by either company. Some older toll bar services designed to restrict toll calls (including long distance or calls to mobile phones) will also block calls to these free phone numbers, although this has become less common since the mid 1990s. A limited number of companies utilizing toll-free numbers will not accept calls from mobile phones. Some other free phone services exist, such as "*555" ("star five five five"), which can be dialled from cellular phones to report traffic conditions and incidents of dangerous driving.
- In the Netherlands, the prefix "0800" is used for toll-free numbers. Calling 0800 numbers from fixed- and mobile phones is free by law. UIFN's "00800" are generally free from fixed lines and charged for the air-time from mobile phones. Access of UIFN is not enforced by law
- In Norway most telephone-numbers have eight digits (some exceptions). The toll-free numbers all begin with "800" followed by five further digits.
- In Pakistan,toll-free numbers have the following format "0800-xxxxx".
- In Paraguay, the prefix "0800" is used for toll-free numbers, followed by 6 digits.
- In the Philippines, the prefix for toll-free numbers is "1800" followed by either one, two, or four digits (examples include 8, 10, and 1888) followed by either a four- or seven-digit phone number.
- In Poland, toll-free numbers have the following format "800 xxx xxx".
- In Portugal, the prefix is "800" so the 9-digit number is "800 xxx xxx". It is referred as "Chamada Gratuita" (Free Call) or as "Número Verde" (Green Number).
- In Romania, the prefix is 08008 is used for toll-free numbers. The service is referred to as "Telverde".
- In Russia, the prefix is "8" "800", so call is 8-800-XXX-XXXX (from 2008-2010 "0-800-XXX-XXXX").
- In Serbia, the prefix "800" followed by a 6 or 7 digit number is used
- In Singapore, the prefix "1800" followed by a 7 digit number is used. Calling from a mobile phone network will be considered as a local call and charges varies among service providers.
- In Slovakia, the toll-free prefix is "0800", followed by six digits. The local rate prefix is "0850".
- In Slovenia, the prefix "080" is used for toll-free numbers, followed by four more digits.
- In South Africa, the prefix "0800", followed by 6 digits is used. It is referred to as a "toll-free" or "0800" number (Afrikaans: tol-vrye).
- In Spain, the "900XXXXXX" or "800XXXXXX" numbers are always toll-free (800 numbers are not usually used), "909XXXXXX" is used for dial-up Internet service and toll-free dialup Internet service (under subscription). Also "1002", "1004", "14XX", "15XX" and "16XX" are free and are used for the telecommunication providers call centers.
- In Sweden, the prefix is "020" or "0200" for toll-free numbers. (Additionally, 0800 is reserved for future use.) These numbers are unreachable from other countries.
- In Switzerland, the toll-free prefix is 0800; previously it was 155. These numbers are called « grüne Nummer / numéro vert / numero verde » (green number).
- In Taiwan, the toll-free prefix is 0800 or 0809.
- In Thailand, Call Free, Free Call, Toll-Free, or Free Phone,the prefix used is "1800"xxxxxx. Calls are free for all fixed line calls. Mobile carriers AIS and CAT (60+%of Thailand's subscribers) offer 1-800 service for cell phones. At present DTAC and True mobile providers do not, however it is expected they will offer the 1-800 service for subscribers by late 2009.
- In Turkey, the prefix for toll-free numbers is "0800".
- In UK, Freephone numbers are usually only free when calling from a landline. Excluding the leading 0 trunk code, all 0500 and some 0800 numbers have 9 digits. Most 0800 numbers and all 0808 numbers have 10 digits.
- In Ukraine, toll-free numbers have "0" "800" and 6 digits after, i.e. 0 800 123456. Before October 2009 "8" "800" prefix was used.
- In Vietnam, the prefix "1800" followed by a series of numbers, usually from 4 to 9 digits. All "1800" numbers are free of charge, but some of them cannot be dialed from all telephones.
See also
References
External links