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Joel Young

Why do we still have 800/888 numbers?

August 25, 2009

The toll free 800 number was born out of the long distance era. I call it the long distance era because that was where the “value” was in voice telecommunications. We have since moved beyond this era, but a remnant, the 800 number still remains. Recently I discovered that many of the younger generation aren’t familiar with the whole concept. For those of you that don’t remember or are too young to know, the brief story goes like this. Once upon a time, there was a really big phone company. It was so big, in fact, that people used that affectionate parental term for mother known as “Ma” to describe it - yes this was Ma Bell or AT&T. In the early years of telephony, AT&T pieced together the Bell System. This was a monster monopoly which controlled everything surrounding telecommunications in the United States and exerted great influence around the world. One of the cornerstone philosophies of the old Bell System was that everyone deserved a phone. This meant that where ever you lived within the Bell System, your local telephone service had to be affordable and easy to use. Of course, as you might guess, running all those wires to so many homes, especially out in the hinterlands was very expensive. The Bell System paid for this by creating the concept of long distance calling. The idea was to subsidize the costs of local service by charging a lot of money for long distance calls. This pricing strategy, made easy because it was all pretty much one company, drove a whole set of cultural phenomena. For example, when the phone would ring, as soon as it was discovered that it was “long distance,” entire households would come to a halt with this single shout. This was because it was really expensive and every minute was carefully metered. There were also really fancy ways of charging calls like, “collect,” “person to person,” and “operator assisted.” Yes, for those of you too young to have experienced it, the 0 was a magic key on the phone. It wasn’t just a number, but pressing it all by itself connected you directly with a human being known as an “operator.” Her job was to make all of those fancy calls a reality.

Now, because long distance was expensive, the wizards at Bell Laboratories invented a special kind of number known as the “800″ or toll free numbers. These could be called free of charge from any phone, anywhere within the Bell System and the long distance charges would be paid by the “called party” instead of the caller. This was magical because it opened up the world of catalog shopping, late night television impulse purchases and the rest of the telemarketing frenzy. Before the Internet, this was THE way to get stuff. These became so popular that 800 numbers alone weren’t enough. In the early 1990’s the numbers were extended to include 888, 877, 866, etc.

But behold something has happened. These numbers are still around today, but they are completely unnecessary. The Bell System was split up as part of a long antitrust mess that extended over a couple of decades. The long distance market, made cost competitive by the entrance of MCI and Sprint, became commoditized. Long distance subsidies dried up and the independent local telephone companies were forced to charge non-subsidized rates for service. This combined with the explosion of cellular has made long distance calling virtually free. Hence, other than branding benefits that go with a certain toll free number like “800-Flowers” for example, there is really no longer a need for the miracle of the 800 number. It has become obsolete. As a matter of fact, think about this. Use of an 800 number actually costs a lot more? If long distance is free, then using an 800 number causes the called party to pay for something that is already free. Sure some of you will say, but I still like to use these numbers when I make a call from a pay phone. To that I ask, have you seen a pay phone lately?

Posted by Joel Young on August 25, 2009 | Comments (11)

September 15, 2009

In response to: Why do we still have 800/888 numbers?
An old pulse dialer commented:

Pressing the "0" key? Don't you mean dialing, way back when, the phone had a dial, and it was kind of irritating to dial the zero because your finger had to twist in the hole all the way around the dial. Yes I'm old.

September 15, 2009

In response to: Why do we still have 800/888 numbers?
rcwithlime commented:

This is not about name calling. For personal use, the man has a point. I do travel around in areas of low income. Pay phones are still hard, if not impossible to find. Mostly because of vandalizm and that even the lower income familes (even those receiving welfare)seem to be able to afford a cell phone. All reasons to the demise of pay phones. In areas of poor coverage, where cellular service does not reach, land lines are required. Again, people either need to have a land line or find one of the few remaining pay phones.
I am continually on the phone for business. Many business accounts still charge for long distance. Use of the toll free numbers saves my company considerable $. Also, for companies with many locations, the use of these numbers allows everyone across the country to utilize the same phone number.Only 1 nunmber needs to be recorded in a business directory. This helps to keep customers coming in to the listed business as customers travel outside of their local area. Another use of these numbers is to assist customer. The toll free number can automatically directs the call to the nearest business location.
Uses still exist, although charged rates do and have varied.

September 15, 2009

In response to: Why do we still have 800/888 numbers?
Telephone Eddie commented:

Now you get unlimited free calls for one (whopping) monthy fee or pay a ridiculously high charge per call for lifeline service. Telecommunications these days is more expensive than back then.

September 15, 2009

In response to: Why do we still have 800/888 numbers?
K1200LT rider commented:

> Me Yes Me commented:
> Mr Joel Young you sir are a fool!
> First off one big reason for toll free
> numbers is so poor people can get needed
> services, That alone is worth keeping them.
You missed the point. The phone company shouldn't be charging for long distance calling at all any more, and that would give everyone access to needed services without the imitation extra cost the phone companies are still charging.
> If you have been to any low income
> neighbourhood, you will see that pay phones
> are alive and well.
And they can remain anywhere it is financially viable to keep them, but again, they would probably mostly disappear if the phone rates were flattened and reasonable.

September 15, 2009

In response to: Why do we still have 800/888 numbers?
John P. Guckel commented:

Well, great topic of discussion. Why? The answer is quite simple, but you have to be really OLD to equate it. The answer is Network Structure ... AKA hardware. In the old days we were advancing slowly towards what the Network is today. We started with "Tin Can Telephone Networks". Ha, Ha! Then we SLOWLY progressed along to copper wire, microwave links, repeaters , hubs, PBX, PABX ... etc.. Eventually we graduated all the way to fiber optic bundles. At the time, no one ever conceived the amount of data concentration and bandwidth possible. Applications? Never dreamed of the Internet, U-Verse or other stuff. Well now the plateau has been, I think, reached. At least for now. All the other "Experimental" hardware techniques have been bought and paid for. The demand for revenue associated with Long Distance and "800" numbers are no longer needed. At least, diminished to a much lower annual expenditure. So yes, the revenues CAN go away, but of course they won't. Human greed for more revenues to fatten pockets, already bursting, rules. Get the point?

September 15, 2009

In response to: Why do we still have 800/888 numbers?
Me Yes Me commented:

Mr Joel Young you sir are a fool!
Did you not do any research before making your inane comments?
First off one big reason for toll free numbers is so poor people can get needed services, That alone is worth keeping them.
If you have been to any low income neighbourhood, you will see that pay phones are alive and well.
My guess is you come from a fairly well to do family and have never needed a pay phone, so you don't notice them. Mummy and Daddy probably gave you a cell phone when you were three and you went to a good school under Mummy and Daddys checkbook and you got a good job working for one of Mummy and Daddys friends right out of school.
There are many other reasons for toll free numbers, another as someone has mentioned, is that they are non-geographic, buisness centric.
There is also a large segment of the population that doesn't have free long distance, whether from geographic, finacial or other reasons.
Toll free numbers are invaluable while traveling for all sorts of things like banking, credit cards, reporting lost or stolen identification etc., for making reservations, etc., etc., etc.
Until the world gets its act together and realises communication is so valuable it is a right that must be free and avalible to all and creates a free planet wide universal voice/data comunication system, we will need things like toll free numbers, 911 service, etc.

September 15, 2009

In response to: Why do we still have 800/888 numbers?
Dave commented:

My young memory goes back to Enterprise numbers,
which were "local" inbound WATS lines prior to
800 numbers.

September 15, 2009

In response to: Why do we still have 800/888 numbers?
frank commented:

I'm old enough to remember long distance being noisy. Shouting was the norm. Later I poured over the theory of balanced line phantom circuits. The word "virtual" hadn't been invented yet.

September 14, 2009

In response to: Why do we still have 800/888 numbers?
Art in KC commented:

I get "free" long distance on my cell phone, but it still costs more on my (cable based) land line. It will probably be another decade or so before we are truly rid of "long distance" concerns.

September 14, 2009

In response to: Why do we still have 800/888 numbers?
Matt commented:

I agree with Nick Gowdy. Further, that 800 prefix puts the number in a business "bin", and makes it easier to remember. Was that 818-flowers? 212-flowers?
Just yesterday, my wife and I (both of us are ex-telecom workers) took our daughter to one of those "homey" restaurants. They had a functional, beautiful, stained wood phone booth in the lobby. We spent a while on a history lesson on the pre-cell era. Daughter was (almost) completely unimpressed.

August 28, 2009

In response to: Why do we still have 800/888 numbers?
Nick Gowdy commented:

Free long distance is only what makes a toll free number attractive to a caller. What makes it attractive to SMBs is largely the fact that it is non-geographic. And non-geographic numbers are far from obsolete, especially for SMBs that want to create a "big business" image.
Outside the US, country-specific non-geographic numbers exist in a variety of forms: caller pays, split pay between caller and business, and business pays (what we'd call toll free). These have been around for ages. Toll free remains the best option for the caller, and businesses still get the benefit of non-geographic, so I don't see toll free numbers in the US going anywhere any time soon.

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