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Toll-free telephone number

A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefix similar to an area code. The specific service access varies by country.

History
The features of toll-free services have evolved as telephone networks have evolved from electro-mechanical call switching to computerized stored program controlled networks.

Originally, before the automatic system was developed, a call billed to the called party had to be placed through a telephone company operator as a collect call, often long-distance. 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.

Some large businesses and government offices received large numbers of collect calls, which proved time-consuming for operators and the callers.

Manual toll-free systems
Prior to the development of customer-dialed toll-free service many telephone companies provided the service by operator assistance for telephone subscribers without dial telephones (manual service).

Operator-assisted toll-free calling included the Zenith number service introduced in the 1930s in the U.S. and Canada, as well as the manual 'Freephone' service introduced by the British Post Office in 1960.

Both systems were similar in concept. The calling party would ring the operator (now '100' in the UK, '0' in Canada/U.S.) and ask for a specific free number. In the U.S., the caller would ask for a number like "Zenith 12345" (some areas used "Enterprise" or "WX" instead of "Zenith"). 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 either case, the operator would look up the corresponding geographic number from a list and place the call with charges reversed.

A 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.

Until the introduction of InWATS toll-free service by the Bell System on May 2, 1967 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. More than a few established manual "Freephone" or "Zenith" numbers remained in use for many years after competing automated systems (0800 in UK, 1800 in U.S.) were deployed in parallel for new toll-free numbers.

Initial direct-dial systems
An 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. This Inward Wide Area Telephone Service (InWATS) allowed calls to be made directly from anywhere in a predefined area by dialling the prefix 1800- and a seven-digit number.

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. states or Canadian provinces. Early InWATS 800 calling lacked the complex routing features offered with modern toll-free service. 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. All calls went to one central destination; there was no means to place a toll-free call to another country.

Despite 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 rental car firms which used it to build a truly national presence.

For small regional businesses who received few long-distance calls, the original InWATS was prohibitively expensive. As a fixed-rate bulk service requiring special trunks, it was suited only to large volume users.

Modern direct-dial systems
Modern toll-free service became possible when telephone companies replaced their electro-mechanical switching systems with computerized switching systems. This allowed toll-free calls to be routed based on instructions located in central databases.

In the United States, AT&T engineer Roy P. Weber from Bridgewater, New Jersey patented a 'Data Base Communication Call Processing Method' which was deployed by AT&T in 1982. The called number was an index into a database, allowing a 'Toll-Free Call' or '800 Call' to be directed anywhere. This feature and other advances that made it possible were what led to AT&T marketing analyst Dodge Cepeda from Bedminster, New Jersey to propose the introduction of providing 800 Toll-Free Service to small and medium-size business customers on a nationwide basis. Once this service was implemented, it became possible for the very smallest of business operations to have potential customers contact them free of charge at a time when long-distance calling was expensive. Until this time, 800 Service was only available to major Fortune 500 companies.

In the United Kingdom, BT introduced "Linkline" on 12 November 1985. No more need to manually ring the operator, two new prefixes 0800 (an automated toll-free service which became "Freefone") and 0345 (a shared-cost service marketed as "Lo-Call" because initially its rates resembled those of local calls) could be reached by direct dial. Cable and Wireless used 0500 and 0645, in much the same way, just a few years later.

Vanity numbering
A toll-free vanity number, custom toll-free number, or mnemonic is easy to remember; it spells and means something or it contains an easily recognized numeric pattern. An easily remembered number is valued as a branding and direct response tool in business advertising.

In the United States, Federal Communications Commission regulations mandate that numbers be allocated on a first come, first served basis; this gives vanity number operators who register as RespOrgs a strong advantage in obtaining the most valuable phonewords, as they have first access to newly disconnected numbers and to newly introduced toll-free area codes. In Australia, premium numbers, such as the 13-series or the vanity phone words, are distributed by auction separately from the administrative procedure to assign random, generic numbers from the available pool.

Shared use
In toll-free telephony, a shared-use number is a vanity number (usually a valuable generic phone word), which is rented to multiple local companies in the same line of business in different cities. These appear in Australia (1300 and 1800) and North America (1800, etc.); in the U.S., the RespOrg infrastructure is used to direct calls for the same number to different vendors based on the area code of the calling number.

As one example, a taxi company could rent shared use of 1800TAXICAB in one city. The number belongs to a company in Van Nuys, California, but is redirected to local cab companies on a city-by-city basis and promoted by being printed on everything from individual taxi cab hub caps to campaigns against drunk driving. Another example is Mark Russell's 1800GREATRATE, a shared-use number rented to lenders in various cities nationwide for a monthly fee.

One former Mercedes dealer obtained 1800MERCEDES, charging other dealers to receive calls to that number from their local areas. The automaker unsuccessfully sued MBZ Communications of Owatonna, Minnesota, operated by former Mercedes dealer Donald Bloom, alleging deception and trademark infringement. Mercedes was ultimately forced to obtain a different number, 1-800-FOR-MERCEDES.

A company renting 1800REDCROSS at a premium price to individual local Red Cross chapters as "shared use" was less fortunate; the Federal Communications Commission reassigned that number to the American Red Cross as an emergency response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Shared use can be used as a means to circumvent FCC regulations against "warehousing, hoarding and brokering" toll-free numbers as technically the number is not being sold, only rented one city or region at a time. The practice is nonetheless potentially problematic as it leaves local businesses advertising numbers which they do not own and for which they therefore have no number portability. The cost per minute and per month is typically far higher for a shared-use number than for a standard toll-free vanity number which a local business controls outright, and there is little protection if the shared use company fails to meet its obligations or ceases operation.

There are also technical limitations; voice over IP users in particular are difficult to geolocate as their calls may be gated to the public switched telephone network at a point hundreds or thousands of miles away from their actual location. A roaming mobile or Internet telephone user is effectively (like the user of a foreign exchange line) attached to a distant rate centre far from their physical address.

If a program like Crime Stoppers is inherently regional or local, but its national 1800222TIPS number is shared between multiple exchanges, the exchange accepting the call must determine whether the call belongs to some other region.

International implementations
The implementation of toll-free calling by assigning special telephone numbers for charging a destination party is implemented in many countries by various dialing prefixes in the local number plan.
 * 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 the user may know which carrier is serving the party they are calling). These numbers are called "0800" (cero ochocientos) or líneas gratuitas (free lines). There is also a local-rate service 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 Armenia, the toll-free prefix is "800" followed by a five-digit number.
 * In Australia, the toll-free prefix is "1800" followed by a six-digit number. Calls are free from any landline and generally free from mobiles, although some mobile providers may charge their own fee. A fixed-cost fee (usually the cost of a local call) is payable by the caller to "1300" and "13" prefix numbers (followed by six and four digits respectively).
 * 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-eight hundred numbers).
 * In Azerbaijan, the prefix for toll -free numbers is 088, followed with seven digits. Toll Free calls are available both from mobile and landline phone operators.
 * In Belgium, the prefix "0800" is used for toll-free numbers, followed by 5 digits. They are commonly referred to as nul-achthonderd nummers (zero-eight hundred numbers) in Dutch, numéros verts (green numbers) in French or "null-achthunderter Nummern" (zero-eight hundred numbers) in the German speaking area.
 * In Brazil, the toll-free prefix is "0800". Although regular landline numbers in Brazil are 8 digits long, the toll-free prefix is usually followed by 7 digits, with 6 digits formerly common. Toll-free numbers in Brazil can be accessed from any telephone (by default) within the country, with many exceptions. They can only be accessed from outside Brazil by using a calling service (such as voice-over-Internet services 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 by 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. There is no special name for the service and when such a number is advertised, there is usually a remark that the call is free.
 * 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 Vivacom and Зелена линия (green line) by A1.
 * In Canada, toll-free numbers are drawn from the US SMS/800 database. A seven-digit number 310-xxxx (a true toll-free, can be called from anywhere in its home area code at local rates from certain, but not all, carriers) is available in Bell Canada and Telus territories. From a landline, these are free. From cell phones, airtime is not covered, but there are no long-distance charges.
 * In Chile, the toll-free prefix is "800" followed by a six-digit number. These numbers are called número 800 (800 number). These numbers cannot be accessed from abroad.
 * In Colombia, toll-free numbers start with "018000".
 * In Croatia, the prefix for toll-free numbers is "0800".
 * In the Czech Republic, the toll-free prefix is "800".
 * In Denmark telephone-numbers have eight digits. The toll-free numbers all begin with "80" followed by six further digits.
 * The Dominican Republic is assigned specific 1800 exchanges in the North American Numbering Plan; the 1-809-200-xxxx exchange is also free for domestic callers in that country.
 * In Egypt, it starts with "0800" followed by a seven-digit number. Unavailable via cellphones.
 * In Ecuador, it starts with "1800" followed by a 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 do not allow the service.
 * In France the "0800" or "0805" 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 used to be "0130". Deutsche Telekom calls these numbers "freecall 0800", most Germans refer to it simply as null-achthunderter Nummern (zero-eight hundred numbers).
 * In Georgia, the prefix for toll-free numbers is 0800 followed with six digits. Toll-free calls are available both from mobile and landline phone operators.
 * In Greece, the toll-free prefix is "800" followed by a seven-digit number or "807" followed by a four-digit number, used for phone card services only.
 * In Hong Kong, toll-free numbers have the "800" prefix.
 * In Hungary, toll-free numbers have the "80" prefix.
 * In Iceland, the toll-free prefix is "800", followed by a four-digit number.
 * In India, the toll-free prefix is "1800", followed by a six or seven digit number. They are free of charge if called from a mobile phone or a land line. The "1860" prefix followed by seven digits is used for local-rate numbers. The calling party pays the local rate and the called party pays long-distance call charges (if any).
 * In Indonesia, the toll-free prefix is "0800-1", followed by a six-digit number.
 * In Ireland, 1800-xxxxxx numbers are freephones, with the 1800 71xxxx reserved for services that expect unusually high volumes of calls (e.g. radio station phone-in lines).
 * In Israel, toll-free numbers are prefixed with "1800" followed by 6 digits (for local businesses); "180" or "189" followed by 7 digits usually refers to a free call to an overseas-operated calling center. The called party pays the charges for the call. As of 2012, calls from local cellular phone service providers to these prefixes are also free. Numbers prefixed with "1700" followed by 6 digits are local-rate numbers for the first 3–4 minutes, after which the charges for the remaining duration of the call are transferred to the receiving party (on a "shared cost" basis).
 * 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) telephone numbers. These numbers are owned by NTT Communications (NTT Com). Several telephone carriers also provide toll-free services under their own company prefixes such as "0077" (these prefixes are also used for other toll services; the prefix "0570" is officially assigned for Navi Dial, a special toll service also operated by NTT Com).
 * 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). 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. Free if calling from a land-line and VoIP only. Calling from mobile phone will be considered a local call, with varying charges depending on the mobile network providers.
 * In Mexico the prefix is 800.
 * In Nepal the prefix is 1660.
 * 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 Spark New Zealand and "0508" by rival company Clear (now Vodafone New Zealand), 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 airtime from mobile phones. UIFN access is not enforced by law, causing certain phone providers not to honor the standard.
 * In Norway most telephone-numbers have eight digits (with some exceptions). Toll-free numbers all begin with "800", followed by five further digits.
 * In Pakistan, toll-free numbers have the 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), and then by either a four- or seven-digit phone number. However, there are restrictions. Toll-free numbers are limited to the telephone network where the toll-free number is being handled. So, subscribers of a different telephone network company will not be able to call a toll-free number handled by a different telephone network. International toll-free numbers can only be accessed if the calling party is a PLDT subscriber.
 * In Poland, toll-free numbers have the format "800 xxx xxx". There are also split-charge numbers in the format "801 uxx xxx" (caller's cost depends on the digit u) and "universal numbers" in the format "804 uxx xxx", where the caller is automatically connected to the nearest office (these numbers are toll-free if u=3).
 * 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 Qatar, toll-free numbers have the format "800' xxxx".
 * In Romania, toll-free numbers have the format "0800 xxx xxx". The service is referred to as număr verde.
 * In Russia, the prefix is "8-800", followed by 7 digits (8-800-XXX-XX-XX).
 * In Serbia, the prefix "0-800", 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 a local call and charges vary 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 "080", followed by 7 digits is used. It is referred to as a "toll-free" or "080" 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"; it used to be "155". These numbers are called grüne Nummer (German) / numéro vert (French) / numero verde (Italian), all meaning "green number".
 * In Taiwan, the toll-free prefix is 0800-xxx-xxx or 0809-xxx-xxx, but not all Taiwanese mobile numbers can call toll free numbers. A toll-free subscriber can decide to restrict a number due to high per-minute mobile rates. This is cumbersome for the caller, who is told to dial another landline number, usually at the highest toll rate within the country as a mobile to landline call. Some small VOIP operators also cannot call toll free numbers. For example, 0701-xxx-xxx cannot call toll free numbers directly, but can call through a live operator by dialling "123" and have them redirect the call.
 * In Thailand, for the Call Free, Free Call, Toll-Free, or Free Phone service, the format used is "1800-xxxxxx". Calls are free for all fixed line calls. Mobile carriers AIS and CAT (60+%o f Thailand's subscribers) offer 1-800 service for cell phones. DTAC and True mobile providers currently do not, but 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 the United Kingdom, modern freephone numbers start with 0800 or 0808, followed by a further 7 digits. Some older 0800 numbers still in use have a shorter number length. The former 0500 freephone number range was withdrawn on 5 June 2017.
 * In Ukraine, toll-free numbers have the "0800" prefix, followed by 2 digits for the carrier code, then 4 digits for the client number - i.e., 0 800 YYXXXX. Before October 2009, the "8800" 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 dialled from all telephones.
 * In Kosovo, the toll-free prefix is "0800" followed by 5 digits.

Toll-free

 * Toll-free numbers in Australia are ten-digit numbers beginning with the prefix "1800".
 * 1800 numbers can also be found in Phonewords via an online auction.
 * For all types, the recipient business pays for incoming toll charges, either per call or at flat rates.
 * 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.
 * The original prefix was 008. Such numbers were nine digits long. For example, the Crime Stoppers toll-free hotline was 008 333 000, sometimes (misleadingly) written as (008) 33 3000. Such numbers could be dialled from outside Australia, for example +61 08 333 0000

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 the caller's location.
 * Callers to a 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.
 * 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 & Media Authority (ACMA) 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.

Mobile telephones

 * Mobile callers are charged to phone a 1300 number or 1800 number, usually at their normal per minute rate, but sometimes at predatory rates. These expensive numbers can be decoded to ordinary landline and organisations usually offer a landline number on their websites, though it may be hard to find.
 * Smart routed 1800 or 13(00) numbers are sometimes not available from mobile phones as owners of the numbers may bar incoming calls from mobile devices due to higher call charges associated with such calls.

Canada
In addition to NANP toll-free numbers, carriers Bell Canada and Telus offer 310- numbers that can be accessed at local-call prices as shared-cost service (free from landlines, incurs local airtime charge from mobiles and local price from payphones). There are a few special mobile-only numbers (like *CAA to call the Canadian Automobile Association) which are free from cell phones, these are actually vertical service codes.

China

 * Calling an 800-number is free of charge. Calling a 400-number incurs a local access charge.
 * 800-numbers are accessible only to land-line subscribers, while 400-numbers are accessible to all land-line and mobile users.

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". There is no prefix before "800".
 * 800-toll-free numbers are not accessible to mobile network subscribers and some land-line subscribers. For instance China Tietong Telecom land-line users cannot access 800 numbers.

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.
 * 400-toll-free numbers with prefix "4001" are international toll-free numbers which can be routed to destination numbers inside or outside China. 400 toll-free numbers with prefix "4000", "4006", "4007" or "4008" are national toll-free numbers which can be routed to China destination numbers only.

Netherlands
The introduction of 0800/0900 numbers in the Netherlands in 1986 has led to significant growth of call centres and an increase in outsourcing.

Originally, free telephone numbers in the Netherlands started with either the 06-0, 06-4 or 06-3000 prefix. Most 0800-numbers cannot be called from abroad, and only few can be called from the Caribbean Netherlands (by dialing 0031800). 088-numbers are shared-cost; from landlines, the caller pays only the costs for a local call, whereas the receiver pays the rest.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, toll-free telephone numbers are generally known as "freephone" numbers (British Telecom numbers use the previously trademarked term Freefone ) and begin with the prefixes 0800 or 0808. The most commonly used prefix is 0800, first used in November 1985. Additionally, numbers in the range 0808 80x xxxx are reserved for not-for-profit helplines, through a scheme negotiated by the Helplines Partnership (now known as the Helplines Association).

Since 1 July 2015, all 0800 and 0808 numbers have been free to call from landlines and mobile phones alike. Most mobile phone operators had charged for such calls previously, with Orange being the final major network to introduce such charges during December 2005. Certain helplines, such as those in the 0808 80x xxxx series had remained free from most networks on a voluntary basis and some niche operators, such as Giffgaff always offered freephone calls at no charge.

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.

0500 numbers, introduced by Mercury Communications (later known as Cable & Wireless, now Vodafone) in 1982, were also freephone numbers (known as "FreeCall"), but were officially withdrawn by Ofcom on 3 June 2017. A three-year transition period prior to that had allowed existing subscribers to migrate to matching 080 85 numbers with the same final 6 digits as before. While the numbers had been portable, the 0500 range had been closed to new allocations since 1997/98.

0500 numbers had six more digits after the prefix. 0800 numbers can have six or seven digits after the prefix. 0808 numbers have seven digits after the prefix.

Freephone numbers in the range 08081 570000 to 570999 are blocked out by Ofcom for use as fictitious telephone numbers.

United States
Toll-free numbers in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) are commonly called "800-numbers" after the first area code assigned for the service. Today, several prefixes are used: 800 (since January 1, 1966), 888 (since March 1, 1996), 877 (since April 4, 1998), 866 (since July 29, 2000), 855 (since October 9, 2010), 844 (since December 7, 2013), and 833 (since June 3, 2017 ).

Area codes reserved for future expansion of the service include 822, 880 through 887, and 889.

The original Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS) is obsolete. North American toll-free numbers are controlled by an intelligent network database (SMS/800) in which any toll-free number may be directed to any geographic telephone number under the control of any of various RespOrgs. Direct inward dialing and toll-free number portability are supported; various providers offer gateways which receive free phone calls on PRI lines and deliver them to voice over IP or pager users.

Toll free numbers usually capture the telephone number of the caller for billing purposes through automatic number identification, which is independent of caller ID data and functions even if caller ID is blocked.

Universal International Freephone Service
Universal International Freephone Service is an international service, assigned the country code 800 by the International Telecommunication Union. The intention is that any customer in the world can dial the same number to reach a business subscribing to a number, and at no charge to the calling party. However, only a limited number of countries participate. In order to participate, countries must agree on the amount of revenue they will retain (to cover their costs of network transport) while still forwarding sufficient revenue to cover the recipient's costs of subscribing.

A Universal International Freephone Number (UIFN) is a worldwide toll-free "800 number" issued by the International Telecommunication Union. Like the 800 area code issued for the North American Numbering Plan in the United States and Canada and 0800 numbers in many other countries, the call is free for the caller while the receiver pays the charges. UIFN uses country-level calling 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. As of March 2020, 144 carriers in 67 countries participate in the UIFN program; free access to the numbers (as international calls) from mobile and coin telephones is not universal. Registration of a +800 number incurs a 300 Swiss franc ITU fee (as of 2018) in addition to any charges levied by the individual carrier. The number must be activated for inbound calls from at least two telephone country codes within 180 days.

The +800 UIFN service is one of three ITU-administered non-geographic codes with a similar numbering scheme. The +808 Universal International Shared Cost Number (UISCN), billed at the price of a domestic call, shares the same eight-digit format; the +979 Universal International Premium Rate Number (UIPRN), billed at a high premium cost, carries one extra digit to indicate price range.

title: Toll-free telephone number


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Talk:Anti-Zionism/Archive 2

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If you mean "all Arab nations" then say "all Arab nations", not "all Arabs". That's all Pizza's last comment said. He's quite correct (on that particular matter). Evercat 13:15 19 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Are you trying to argue that the various wars have invalidated Chomsky's views? I suspect Abbas would be quite willing to work with Chomsky on creating a new government in the region. Pizza Puzzle

 * The form of Zionism that Chomsky believed no longer exists. In theory, this could change in the future; in theory, the Jewish community could develop new beliefs along these lines. Similarly, in theory, Chomsky could also change his mind.  in theory, anything is possible.  But in the present, what he describes is not Zionism, and is rejected by the Jewish and Israeli community as not being Zionism. Millions of Christian Zionists also reject such views. Frankly, some of his views are even considered anti-Semitic. Thus, it would be misleading to present him as a Zionist!  (He himself refuses to identify as one. Doesn't this tell you something?)  In any case, Chomsky is just on person, and his views are not representative of all the many millions of anti-Zionists out there, nor are they represent the views of many officially anti-Zionist governments and organizations. Look, I don't mind you or anyone else discussing his views; in fact, they already are covered in great detail!  I just object to the way that so many people use him, in so many articles, as having a voice equal to that of millions of other people.  Context. RK 14:50 19 Jun 2003 (UTC)

 * It does exist. Chomsky is an advocate of it. What he describes is rejected by the mass media. What the Jewish/Israeli community endorses remains unknown and debatable. Pizza Puzzle

 * It exists as an idea held by more than one individual, yes. But it does not exist as a mass-movement, nor as a position within the WZO. Slrubenstein

Proposed addition
Under the "anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism" section some mention should be made that the latter could be construed by the former through a double-standard in both action and argument. The same argument was made by both Lawsrence Summers, president of Harvard, and Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz. See the following links:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=3299

Moreover, as a member of European clergy, Rufeisen's personal safety from possible persecution by Nazis was guaranteed. -- I wonder where that comes from, as it is certainly not an accurate description of Nazi practice in Poland. A Jew who became a Catholic priest would have been persecuted once as a Jew and once as a Catholic priest (a large number of whom were killed, including several thousand in Auschwitz). This sentence also contradicts the early sentence ...a Polish Jew persecuted by the Nazis.... Was he or wasn't he? I'm not familiar enough with this case to fix the text, but obviously something is wrong with it. Or maybe it is just written confusingly?? -- zero 13:35, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * I removed the sentence, since it was obviously incorrect. In fact, there was even a Catholic church in the Warsaw Ghetto for Jews who had converted. Danny 13:42, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

''Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, Arabs have interchangeably used the term "Zionists" (Sahyûniyyûn), with "Jews", "Children of Israel" (Banû Isrâîl) or "Israelis". (Stillman, 1986)''

I'm sure that is true, but it is no different from the normal practice in Israel, where one hears "Jew" all the time in places where "Israeli" should appear, while "Zionist" is hardly heard at all unless one is speaking specifically about Zionist organizations or (usually historical) Zionist activists. zero 14:14, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * I disagree. Israelis do not assume that all Jews are Zionists (they know much better); they don't assume that Zionists are the same as Jews (they know that many Christians in the USA are pro-Zionist); they do not deliberately morph these two terms together to make anti-Semitic statements politically acceptable. I think you missed this point; most experts on anti-Semitism decry the fact that the western public is unaware of the way these two terms (Jew, Zionist) are morphed together in much of the Arab world as a way of making anti-Semitic statements acceptable. RK 21:43, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * I said that "Zionist" is rarely heard, so your reply avoided the main point, which was the first one. I'll give an actual example.  Once I attended the opening of a part of an educational institution in Israel and there were lots of speeches.  Speaker after speaker (some of them American) went on about "educating young Jews" despite the fact that about 10% of the students there are Israeli Arabs.  When I mentioned this to the people I was with (all Israeli Jews), they agreed that "educating young Israelis" would have been better, but it had not even occurred to them until I pointed it out.  In my experience (and according to my discussions with Israelis) this is a completely normal situation. I find it hard to criticise a Palestinian under Israeli occupation who says "Jew" to mean "Israeli" when Israelis use the same language themselves.  (Arabs in other countries have less excuse.) --zero 01:38, 8 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * Oh. Very good points! RK 16:56, 8 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Israeli writers about the Arab-Israeli conflict almost always say "Arab" and "Jew", rarely "Arab" and "Zionist" (with the same exceptions). Which raises the issue: why not complain about the even more common failure to distinguish between Arabs and Arab nationalists? [I bet nobody here even heard of this issue before.] Note that I am not referring to the substantive distinction between Israeli behavior and Jewish behavior, but to the verbal distinction between Jews and Zionists that RK raises with this quotation. Speaking slightly more widely, it seems to me that nobody has worked harder to foster the equation between Jews and Zionism than the Zionist movement has. There are no complaints to be heard if this equation is made in the course of giving praise but only if it is made in the course of criticism. --zero 14:14, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * Most Jews are Zionist, in the limited sense that they support the right of Jews to have a Jewish state somewhere within the land of Israel. Very few Jews are anti-Zionist. (Many might be non-Zionist, but non-Zionism and anti-Zionism are totally different.)  Millions of Jews are actively Zionist in their tangible support of the State of Israel through financial aid, charity, visiting the country, and joining synagogues that are actively pro-Zionist.  (Even the Reform movement is now actively pro-Zionist; it is not just an Orthodox phenomenon.)  Also, perhaps we should point out somewhere that Jewish nationalism (Zionism) is not exclusive of Arab nationalism. In fact, as far as I know, the vast majority of Jews have no problem with Arab nationalism in general, the belief that Arabs have a right to an Arab nation - in fact, many Arab nations - in the middle east.  Zionist Jews merely believe that they have a right to have a small state somewhere in the middle-east as well. These are not exclusive positions. RK 21:50, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * I am confused as to your distinction between "Arabs" and "Arab nationalists". Pretty much all Arabs are Arab nationalists, in the same sense that Zionism is Jewish nationalism. Not all Arabs are extremist about Arab nationalism, but they all support the existence of many Arab nations (just as Jewish nationalists support the right of existence of one Jewish nation, i.e. Israel.) Of course, you may be talking about pan-Arab nationalism, the unification of all Arabs into one nation. (Nassar's dream!  Saddam's dream!) Or something else. Could you clarify? RK 21:43, 7 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * I confused my point by introducing the phrase "Arab nationalist", so I'll try again. When people write, for example, The Jews just blew up an apartment building without even allowing the 100 people living there to remove their possessions, we are offended because it was not the action of "The Jews", but an action of the Israeli army.  I also find that way of speaking offensive, and it is correct to say that it is common throughout the Arab world. We should say The IDF just blew up....  However, many people in both Israel and the West don't have the slightest hesitation in saying The Arabs  or The Arabs  in almost identical circumstances.  It is a pervasive double standard.  Most people in the West (especially in America) don't even notice because they have grown up in a system which is saturated with anti-Arabism from top to bottom.  Many times I have seen an American politician talking about "The Arabs" in a way that would cause an instant end of career if the same words were spoken about "The Jews", but nobody complains except a few Arab-Americans and who cares what they think? --zero 01:38, 8 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * Again, very good points. RK 16:56, 8 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Regarding this: "In most of the Arab world there is no practial difference between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, Arabs have interchangeably used the term "Zionists" (Sahyûniyyûn), with "Jews", "Children of Israel" (Banû Isrâîl) or "Israelis". (Stillman, 1986)" Seems that this statement is overly sweeping and broad -- especially saying "Arabs" and seems a bit POV -- for example, what is a "practical difference". Perhaps it could be toned doen a bit. Bcorr 22:18, 27 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * Perhaps this point can be refined. However, before you do so I would just ask that you read a handful of books on anti-Semitism in the Arab world. These book refer to the huge number of Arab books, as well as editorials and articles from the Arab press, in which this identification is made. By the way, as other Wikipedia articles point out, this phenomenon was not confined solely to the Arab world. The deliberate mixing of "Jew" and "Zionist" and "Israeli" and "traitor" was purposely done by the Soviet Union and some of its client states for many years. The existence of this propaganda, in both the former Soviet Union, and in the many Arab states today, is not controversial. The only controversy exists in the mind of Zero000. So let me be clear: we should not hold that discussing this important phenomenon is racist towards Russians, or towards Arabs. It isn't. It is not a double standard, either. It is an essential point in understanding why so many in the Arab conflate Israel with all of Judaism. RK 13:40, 28 Sep 2003 (UTC)

It is RKPOV. (No, I'm not seriously suggesting creating such an article, it would be too hard to keep it within 40K.) It is especially instructive to note how it uses the word "Arabs" in the same sweeping manner as the use of the word "Jews" it is complaining about. This double standard is so deeply ingrained that many people in the West aren't even aware of it. Also, to quote myself from above, nobody has worked harder to foster the equation between Jews and Zionism than the Zionist movement has. There are no complaints to be heard if this equation is made in the course of giving praise but only if it is made in the course of criticism. Go ahead and try to make the article NPOV if you dare... --zero 03:12, 28 Sep 2003 (UTC)

 * No one denies that much of the Zionist leadership attempted to make such a relation. No one is preventing you, or anyone else, from discussing this in a Wikipedia article. Please do not imply otherwise. The effort, however, failed. For almost a century most of Reform Judaism was hostile to Zionism, and much of Orthodoxy was indifferent. And now that we have post-Zionism, the effort is revealed as a total failure. About the only people who buy this identity, ironically, are Arabs who hate Israel. RK 13:40, 28 Sep 2003 (UTC)

Alternative version of this article
A possible alternative to this page is being developed at User:Adam Carr/Anti-Zionism.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Anti-Zionism/Archive 2


text:
Talk:Toll-free telephone number

Split?
This rightly has globalize/USA attached. But I'm made to wonder: Is the term "toll-free" in use anywhere outside the US? Here in the UK, for instance, we pay tolls to drive over certain roads and bridges, not to make phone calls.

You could argue that the article was only intended to cover the US side of things. The problem with this is that many titles, such as Freephone and 0800, now redirect here.

On this basis, I think this page ought to be split into two pages: -- Smjg (talk) 12:57, 5 October 2009 (UTC)
 * a geographically neutral page dealing with the general concept of free-to-call phone numbers and summarising the forms they take in various countries, under a more geographically neutral name (Free telephone number? Free-to-call telephone number?  Any better ideas?)
 * a page to hold all the US-specific information currently here (Toll-free telephone numbers in the United States?)

 * I agree it is confusing for UK readers (although I don't know what conventions are used in other countries around the world). Clearly this isn't too hot a topic though given that the discussion was opened 6 months ago and mine is the first comment.  I'll make a mental note to revisit this page in a couple of months and if there's no more discussion then I'll make the changes.  In terms of page name, Free telephone number is OK.  I'd also link Free phone number to there as well (note the deliberate space to distinguish between the brand name of freephone number).  I'm interested in hearing whether freephone is a brand that's only used in the UK or does that term apply in the US as well?  I only ask so that we know where to redirect freephone to after the split......
 * Also, the name of the US version of the article I would call simply Toll-free number if that is the only place where that description is used. ChrisUK (talk) 20:07, 30 March 2010 (UTC)
 * I think you'll find the brand name is Freefone rather than freephone. But you're right that it would be useful to find out what terms are used where in the world.
 * Most of the Google hits for "toll-free" seem to be US-based. Though peculiarly, there's a UK company International Tollfree which, even more confusingly, supplies free phone numbers in various countries, but apparently not the implied +800.  So I'm not sure ... but if we're going to put the US article under such a vague title, we'd need a dablink. -- Smjg (talk) 23:22, 18 June 2010 (UTC)

Excuse me if I haven't edited this correctly, as I am new to this. The item on this page that suggests toll-free or "freephone" calls are "free" in the UK is incorrect. Most telephone packages that provide a unlimited calls, or a number of free minutes (both landline and mobile phones) actually charge the call initiators for these calls. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.32.59.229 (talk) 05:23, 20 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Calls normally are charged to the initiator. And what have free minutes provided by phone operators to do with this whatsoever? -- Smjg (talk) 00:31, 31 August 2010 (UTC)
 * I see your confusion Smjg, it's completely reasonable to think that free minutes are irrelevant, however unfortunately here in the UK, they are not quite unrelated. This is because mobile (cell) companies and a few landline companies will offer free minutes to normal numbers for a fixed monthly fee but bizarrely will then charge for "freephone" numbers. I completely agree with splitting this article, it's very heavily biased towards the US at the moment. I'd like to see the current page changed to a "did you mean" type page offering a US-centric page Toll-free telephone numbers in the United States - I think it's important that this name includes "United States" and a non-US specific page called Free telephone numbers - this should include a link to the US version. Is Freephone really a trade name?! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.39.106.103 (talk) 10:04, 10 May 2011 (UTC)

 * Split declined. Article needs some attention, but creating two articles because of a slight difference in language between UK and USA is not Wikipedia policy. The concept of toll-free telephone number is the same regardless of dialect, and the name of this article is easily understood in British English.  SilkTork  *Tea time 23:29, 25 May 2011 (UTC)

I've just re-read my original comment and realised that I made a sudden change of subject between the first paragraph and the rest. My split proposal wasn't about the difference in terminology. I proposed it because there was, at the time, sufficient US-specific detail here to warrant moving it to a separate article.

In any case, I would still like a decision to be reached on a non-US-specific title to move this page to. See MOS:COMMONALITY. — Smjg (talk) 13:33, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

 * Split, don't move. The Toll-free telephone number section is getting a bit long and should be split out to a separate article on area code 800 or toll-free telephone numbers in North America, leaving just the global info here with just a brief entry for each country. The RespOrg and WATS bits are rather specific to +1-800 (or its overlays). The intrastate/interstate and intraLATA/interLATA nonsense is FCC-contrived and US-specific, much of it tied to AT&T divestiture, the commerce clause or other country-specific regulatory constructs. The UK skipped InWATS entirely, going from directly manual freephone to 0800 LinkLine in 1985. If the least-cost routing and intelligent network capabilities exist in other countries' modern systems, move that information into the main body of this article. The NANP-specific bits should go into an article about the NANP +1-800 numbers. There's also a huge amount of unsourced material which needs to be cleaned up. This is an issue independent of the terminology question ("freephone" vs. "toll-free", as "toll" crept into the lexicon primarily in places where local calls are flat-rated) 66.102.87.61 (talk) 18:10, 27 December 2013 (UTC)

8YY
I was reading a proposal by the CPUC that referred to "8YY" which the document defined as "800 or 800-like ... toll-free services". Is that a generally used term that should be added to the article? The "8YY" use is on page 5 of this proposal for basic telephone service revisions. --Elijah (talk) 01:01, 18 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Most likely, 8YY is a catch-all for a series of area codes... 844, 855, 866, 877, 888 and 800. No advantage to "8YY" vs. using "toll-free number" as the latter is broad enough to include domestic toll-free services in other countries which number things differently. K7L (talk) 04:21, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

Hungary
I think Hungary's freephone prefix should be listed as 0680. Technically, the area code is 80, but there's no way to call a freephone number without the 06 part. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.133.44.194 (talk) 11:31, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

Inventor?
How comes Lester Wunderman isn't mentioned in this article? To some, he's the inventor of the toll-free number. And at least, he made it big. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.199.83.129 (talk) 08:22, 27 April 2011 (UTC)
 * That article does pretty much try to claim he invented the sun, the stars and the moon but doesn't explain how he is the "inventor" of toll-free numbers and postal codes if he has no clear ties to any telephone companies or postmasters. K7L (talk) 04:26, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

Freephone in the United Kingdom

 * Which year did the direct dial 0800 freephone numbers start being used in the UK and how many digits were in those numbers? - 91.85.46.176 (talk) 22:41, 30 December 2012 (UTC)

 * "Linkline (later "Freefone") 0800 services by British Telecom on 12 November 1985" appear to be the first direct-dial UK freephone, not sure how many digits. 66.102.87.61 (talk) 17:06, 27 December 2013 (UTC)

???
The first section, "History" need to be completely re-written as it is entirely incomprehensable. Thanks. 99.32.160.175 (talk) 16:29, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

 * Most likely, the "History" and "Growth as a business tool" sections need to be combined, restructured, then split into some sort of timeline - starting with Zenith number and "ask the operator for freephone (whatever)", then Wide Area Telephone Service, then the modern toll-free system (so the RespOrgs, the Primetel abuses and the overlay plan numbers come last). Not sure if history in NANP vs. history in other countries should be split to different sections, it seems +1-800 is overwhelming info on freephone elsewhere. K7L (talk) 12:33, 31 October 2013 (UTC)

'Res City', Omaha Nebraska
Is there a source for all of this text about all the early hotel reservation numbers on band 3 InWATS in Nebraska? The info looks plausible but a web search mostly turns up WP:CIRCULAR links to sites which cribbed the answers from Wikipedia. K7L (talk) 12:33, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm moving this entire block of text to the talk page as there is still no source for anything.

===Growth of 800 toll-free numbers as a business tool=== The North American +1-800 toll free area code, as originally implemented in the 1960s, was technologically primitive. Instead of providing detailed, per-minute billing of incoming calls, it relied on a flat-rate long distance plan (the Wide Area Telephone Service) which used special lines. The toll-free subscriber was required to lease enough inbound lines, with flat-rate inbound long distance on each, to handle the anticipated +1-800 call volume. US interstate toll-free coverage was sold in "bands" or zones, numbered 1 (adjacent states) through 5 (cross-country, entire continental US). The higher the band, the more expensive the line. Band 3 reached halfway across the US in every direction, so would suffice to cover all 47 states (Alaska and Hawaii excluded, intrastate covered separately on another number) if the call centre were in the geographic center of the country, namely Nebraska. The initial call centers gravitated by necessity to this one arbitrarily central point.
 * It has been suggested that this page be merged into Toll-free telephone number. Proposed since December 2013.

The first company to use toll-free lines hosted numbers for major companies. Americana Hotels, Budget Rent a Car, Hyatt Hotels, Marriott Hotels, Rodeway Inns, Sheraton Hotels, and Quality Inn were a few of the major companies hosted. It 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.

IN-WATS service had some limitations. Billing for IN-WATS 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. Also users could not obtain call detail information on the calls received without paying for special studies completed weeks after the calls had been received.

From 1967 until around 1986, two years following the 1984 AT&T breakup, AT&T had an absolute monopoly on assigning 800 numbers to subscribing customers.

During 1985 and 1986, the FCC and the Federal Courts which oversaw the divestiture of AT&T and subsequent developments in the telecom industry ordered an eventual fully competitive portable numbering system for toll-free numbers. The local Bell telephone companies (now separated from AT&T) and Bellcore would manage the databases for full number portability. However, it would take some time before this system could be fully developed, tested, and implemented across the country. No firm date was determined at that time for activating this database system nor the management of such a system. New methods of telephone network signaling systems (SS7) were still under development and still needed to be implemented. In the meantime, starting about 1986, the Federal Government ordered Bellcore to assign specific 800-NXX codes to specific long-distance carriers. Thus, from 1986 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, based on the first six-digits (the 800-NXX code) of their full 800 number. By 1991 the FCC ordered that by May 1, 1992, full number portability would need to be in place nationwide, since the number database system and various peripherals and administrative functions were now available throughout the country. However, shortly before May 1992, the FCC and the telephone industry determined that the full implementation would need to be postponed for another year. May 1, 1993 was the actual date when full 800 number portability was effective throughout the United States. Canada fully joined in the U.S. 800-number portability system a year later in May 1994. Canadian 800 service developed in parallel with U.S. 800 service in the 1960s and 70s, and by 1984, "crossborder" 800 service finally became available, where (upon the called customer's option), a U.S.-based 800 number could now be called from Canada, and vice-versa.

800 number portability means that toll-free numbers are no longer 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. Starting in the early 1990s, 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.

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.102.87.61 (talk • contribs) 17:11, 27 December 2013 (UTC)

title: Talk:Toll-free telephone number


text:
Gloria Guinness

Gloria Guinness (née Rubio y Alatorre; 27 August 1912 – 9 November 1980), previously Countess Gloria von Fürstenberg-Herdringen, was a Mexican socialite and a contributing editor to Harper's Bazaar from 1963 to 1971. She was photographed by Cecil Beaton, Slim Aarons, Alejo Vidal-Quadras; designed for by Cristóbal Balenciaga, Elsa Schiaparelli, Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint-Laurent; and was also a close friend and inspiration to Truman Capote.

Family and childhood
Gloria Rubio y Alatorre was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. She was the daughter of José Rafael Rubio y Torres (1880, Michoacán, México – 1916, San Antonio, Texas), a liberal journalist who supported Francisco I. Madero for which he died in exile, in the United States, and his wife, Maria Luisa Alatorre y Diaz-Ocampo (1882–1961, Zapotlán el Grande, Jalisco) who belonged to a Spanish colonial landowning family from Jalisco, who made their fortune in sugar (descendants of conquistador Don Diego de Ochoa-Garibay), partly described by their relative, Alfonso Reyes Ochoa, in his book Parentalia.

Through her paternal family, Gloria was a relative of the celebrated 19th-century art collector Ramón de Errazu y Rubio de Tejada and of the wealthy Mexican aristocrat Jesús Colón de Larreátegui y Vallarta (a direct descendant of the 1st Duke of Veragua, eldest son of Christopher Columbus). Gloria had two elder siblings: Rafael and Maria Luisa.

Gloria's childhood was unstable, mainly because of her father's political persecution during the Mexican Revolution and early death in exile (due to health complications at a health clinic in San Antonio, Texas when Gloria was age 5). She and her siblings spent most of their childhood with her mother's relatives, members of Mexican elite, such as the Ochoa-Garibay, Villaseñor-Jasso and Sánchez de Aldana families, with whom the Rubios lived for periods of time. Nevertheless, the Cristero War in Jalisco forced both them and their relatives to leave the countryside for Mexico City, where she eventually met her first husband.

Legendary origins
Without any known explanation, Guinness frequently downplayed or directly lied about her origins, often saying she was from Veracruz, that her father was a revolutionary soldier killed in action, and that her mother was either a laundry maid or a seamstress. Her mysterious true origins were the cause of numerous rumors and speculation, many intended to diminish her social position, but eventually did little to destroy her reputation as "the most elegant woman in the World,” in the words of Eleanor Lambert, founder of the Met Gala, New York Fashion Week and the International Best Dressed List.

Marriages and descendants
Gloria Rubio was married four times.

Her first marriage to Jacobus Hendrik Franciscus Scholtens, the Dutch director of a sugar refinery estate in Veracruz took place in Mexico City, on 31 March 1933. Rubio was 20, and the groom, a son of Jan Scholtens and Maria Le Comte, was 47. They separated, shortly afterwards, and they finally divorced, in 1935, with no issue.

Her second marriage was to Franz-Egon Maria Meinhard Engelbert Pius Aloysius Kaspar Ferdinand Dietrich, third Graf von Fürstenberg-Herdringen (1896–1975), whom she married on 4 October 1935, in Kensington, England; this being the second marriage to both and making her a stepmother of actress Betsy von Furstenberg. They were the parents of:

 * Dolores Maria Agatha Wilhelmine Luise, Freiin von Fürstenberg-Hedringen (31 July 1936 – 20 January 2012). She married Patrick Benjamin Guinness (her stepbrother) on 22 October 1955, who died in 1965 in a car accident in Switzerland. They were the parents of:
 * Maria Alexandra Guinness (b. 1956), who married Foulques, Count de Quatrebarbes (b. 1948), with issue, in 1979, and, after their divorce, Neville Cook.
 * Loel Patrick Guinness (b. 1957)
 * Victoria Guinness (b. 1960), who married Philip Niarchos in 1984, son of Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos, with issue.
 * Franz-Egon Engelbert Raphael Christophorus Hubertus, 4th Graf von Fürstenberg-Hedringen (born 27 July 1939 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf). He married Agneta Sundby (born 12 April 1943), a Swedish model on 20 August 1967, in Visnum church, Visnum, Sweden. After their divorce, he married Adelina von Fürstenberg (née Cuberyan).

Her third marriage was to Ahmad-Abu-El-Fotouh Fakhry Bey (1921–1998), whom she married in 1946 and divorced in 1949. He was a grandson of King Fuad I of Egypt, as the only child of Princess Fawkia of Egypt (later Countess Wladimir d’Adix-Dellmensingen) and her first husband, Mahmud Fakhry Pasha. Through his mother, he was a nephew of King Farouk I of Egypt and Queen Fawzia of Iran (first wife of Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran). No issue came from this marriage.

Her fourth and final marriage was to Thomas Loel Guinness (1906–1988), Member of Parliament, shareholder of Guinness Mahon, as a member of the banking branch of the Guinness family. They married on 7 April 1951, in Antibes. By this marriage, she had three stepchildren: Patrick Benjamin Guinness (1931–1965), married to her daughter Dolores; William Loel Seymour Guinness (born 1939), and Belinda Guinness (1941-2020), wife of Sheridan Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 5th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava.

Among Guinness's alleged lovers, in-between her successive marriages, were David Beatty, 2nd Earl Beatty, and the British ambassador to France Duff Cooper.

Fashion and cultural icon
In 1963, Guinness began a series of columns in Harper's Bazaar. She famously asserted, in the magazine's July 1963 issue, that "Elegance is in the brain, as well as in the body and in the soul. Jesus Christ is the only example we have of any one human having possessed all three at the same time."

Artist's subject
She was painted by artists like René Bouché, Kenneth Paul Block and Alejo Vidal-Quadras. She was photographed for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and Women's Wear Daily by Cecil Beaton, Richard Avedon, John Rawlings, Toni Frissell, Horst P. Horst, Slim Aarons and Henry Clarke.

Capote's swans
Gloria was named, by Truman Capote, as one of his "swans,” a group which included Lee Radziwill, Marella Agnelli, Gloria Vanderbilt, Babe Paley, Diana Vreeland, and others, which he used as inspiration for his characters, most notably in his chapter "La Côte Basque 1965".

Fashion
Guinness was dressed by various top-couture designers like Cristóbal Balenciaga, Elsa Schiaparelli, Marc Bohan at Christian Dior, Chanel, Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent, Valentino Garavani, Halston and shoes by Roger Vivier.

She was one of the first models to wear capri pants by Emilio Pucci.

Among the 17 outfits, 12 hats and pairs of shoes that she donated to museum collections were a 1948 Balenciaga evening gown of organdy with flock flowers, an evening gown from 1965, a 1949 hand-painted evening gown by Marcelle Chaumont and a 1950s evening gown by Jeanne Lafaurie, the only dress by that designer in the collection of Victoria & Albert Museum.

The most elegant woman in the world
Despite being voted in second place at Time magazine's "Best Dressed Woman in the World" in 1962, after Jacqueline Kennedy, Eleanor Lambert famously asserted that, without a doubt, Gloria Guinness was "to me, the most elegant woman in the World".

She appeared on the International Best Dressed List from 1959 through 1963. The following year, she was elevated into its Hall of Fame.

Design and properties
The Guinnesses had an apartment in Manhattan's Waldorf Towers, an 18th-century farmhouse called Villa Zanroc in Épalinges, a 350-ton yacht, an apartment on Avenue Matignon in Paris, decorated by Georges Geffroy, a stud farm in Normandy, Haras de Piencourt, and Gemini, a mansion at Manalapan, Florida.

The Florida property, which is divided by U.S. Highway A1A, faces the lake, on one side, and the ocean, on the other; the two halves of the building, which was designed in the 1940s by architect Marion Syms Wyeth for Gerald Lambert, were ingeniously connected by a sound-proofed living room that was set beneath the bisecting road. In addition, the Guinnesses built a house in Acapulco, Mexico, designed by Mexican architect Marco Aldaco. They also kept three aircraft: an Avro Commander, for short trips around Europe, a small jet, and a helicopter for Loel Guinness's hops between the Manalapan house and the Palm Beach golf course.

Death
In 1980, Gloria Guinness died of a heart attack at Villa Zanroc in Epalinges. She is buried next to her last husband at the Bois de Vaux Cemetery in Lausanne, who was transferred there, after his death in a health clinic in Houston, Texas in 1988.

title: Gloria Guinness


text:
Talk:Spartan Alphabet

Original text was:

The Spartan Alphabet is a simplified form the common Latin alphabet used by those certain in their convinction that the Bush Administration is an alien conspiracy, whose purpose is to weaken the world's population through the slow erosion of our amassed supply of Giblet-based atmospheric weapons.

I guess the above qualifies as patent nonsense?

Lupo 10:57, 18 Dec 2003 (UTC)

title: Talk:Spartan Alphabet


text:
Interstate 605

Interstate 605 (abbreviated I-605, officially known as the San Gabriel River Freeway) is a 27 mi major north–south auxiliary Interstate Highway in the Greater Los Angeles urban area of Southern California. It runs from I-405 and State Route 22 (SR 22) in Seal Beach in Orange County to I-210 just south of the Irwindale–Duarte border in Los Angeles County. The San Gabriel River Freeway closely parallels the San Gabriel River for most of its alignment, hence its name, which is one of the few Southern California freeways not named after a city along its route.

Aside from changes to the interchange with I-105 (which did not open until the early 1990s), and the addition of an HOV lane between I-405 and I-10, I-605 is one of the only remaining freeways that kept its original alignment throughout its run through Los Angeles County since it first opened.

Route description
The California Streets and Highways Code defines Route 605 as "(a) Route 1 near Seal Beach to Route 405. (b) Route 405 to Route 210 near Duarte." However, the portion in subsection A has yet to be constructed.

The southern terminus of I-605 is at the San Diego (I-405) and Garden Grove (SR 22) Freeways in Seal Beach. From there, it runs roughly north through the Gateway Cities of the Los Angeles Basin. It then shifts north-northeast, crossing the Whittier Narrows and across the San Gabriel Valley. I-605 then ends at its junction with the Foothill Freeway, (I-210) just south of the Irwindale–Duarte border. Ramps from I-605 then extend north to Huntington Drive in Duarte.

I-605 follows most of the length of the San Gabriel River from the San Diego Freeway in Seal Beach to the Santa Fe Dam. Typically dry riverbed and flood basins are visible from many portions of the route, especially near the northern terminus.

In the mid 2000s, a HOV lane was added for motorists with two or more people to use between I-405 and I-10. The HOV lane ends at I-10 and there are no plans to extend it to I-210 at this time. With the addition of the HOV lane, the left shoulder was eliminated to avoid massive costs to widen the freeway. The highway also suffers from traffic jams regularly, especially the junction with I-5 (the Santa Ana Freeway). Newer signs with exit numbers replaced the older signs between the Orange County line and I-10 in 2016, with the completion of the I-605 and I-10 junction improvement. I-605 is one of the only Southern California freeways without destinations (control cities) such as "Seal Beach" or "Irwindale" since its opening. Rather, cardinal directions ("NORTH" or "SOUTH"), and a simple "THRU TRAFFIC" designation in place of control cities, are used on signs along I-605 itself.

I-605 is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System, and is part of the National Highway System, a network of highways that are considered essential to the country's economy, defense, and mobility by the Federal Highway Administration. I-605 from I-405 to I-10 is known as the San Gabriel River Freeway, as named by Senate Bill 99, Chapter 1101 in 1967.

History
In 1957, the number for this route was proposed as I-13, as it is positioned approximately midway between I-5 and I-15 (although it intersects the former). That number was rejected, as was the second proposed number, I-102. Finally, the designation I-605 was accepted in 1958.

I-605 began construction in 1963 and the first section was opened in 1964 from I-405 to SR 60. The newest section (extension to I-210) was opened in 1971 was originally signed as SR 243. There are plans to extend it to SR 1 further south in Orange County as SR 605, but strong community opposition means that it is unlikely that the alignment will ever be built.

In 2020, there was a proposal to widen I-605, which would have added four new lanes to 12 mi of I-605 between Norwalk and El Monte, California. This proposal was rejected due to strong community opposition, in particular due to the fact that it would have led to the destruction of houses in Downey, California.

title: Interstate 605


text:
Crossfire (1992 video game)

Crossfire is a free and open source software cross-platform multiplayer online role-playing video game. features a tile based graphic system with a pseudo-isometric perspective. All content is licensed under the GNU GPL-2.0-or-later. The client and server will run in Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, IRIX, and an array of other platforms.

Description
is a multi-player online role-playing game; it can be described as a cross-over of the ideas of Nethack, Ultima and Gauntlet.

Development history
's development history started in mid-1992. It originally started as a Gauntlet clone developed by Frank Tore Johansen at the University of Oslo in Norway. After a name change in that same year and brief hosting time at University of California, Berkeley (Jul-1999 to Jan-2001), the project now resides at SourceForge where development continues.

started with just one indoor map and then increased to 4 indoor maps with one-way portals from level 1 to level 4. Upon clearing the last level, there was nothing more for the player to do. Spells were limited to magic bullet (the first spell), fireball, magic missile, burning hands and lightning bolt. Later, when two-way portals were implemented, development and content contribution expanded greatly.

has since grown to encompass over 150 monsters, about 3000 maps to explore, an elaborate magic system, 13 races, 15 character classes, a system of skills, and many artifacts and treasures.

As of July 2018 the game is under active development by the community.

Gameplay
Any number of players can connect and play on the public servers, finding and using items and battling monsters. They can cooperate or compete in the same world which includes both static and randomly generated content. It is a client and server based game with the ability to be played over the Internet, on a local network setting, or on a single computer setup.

is based in a medieval fantasy world. Players can choose any of 13 races from dragons (fire hatchlings) to quetzalcoatl as well as the more average human and elf. They can also play as one of 15 classes or professions which range from alchemist to a monk to a warrior. The game has a comprehensive skill system that attributes experience points to each skill, instead of the character earning general experience points.

Once the character creation process is complete, players enter the game world and pick from the two starting towns, Scorn or Navar. Although there are many quests, the game leans towards hack and slash adventuring with other players. The game world is quite large, making exploration a key gameplay mechanic.

Influence on other online games
was used as the base of a number of commercial and free MMORPGs, such as, a Java rewrite, , which closed its code and content, and , which only used the server code but features an isometric view and a different project philosophy focused on a single main server. is another fork of the Crossfire project, primarily aiming to improve the quality of its code and in-game content.

Reception
In 1999 was featured by Linux Journal. The game was downloaded over 550,000 times from SourceForge.net between 2000 and April 2020.

title: Crossfire (1992 video game)


text:
Brown creeper

The brown creeper (Certhia americana), also known as the American treecreeper, is a small songbird, the only North American member of the treecreeper family Certhiidae.

Description
Adults are brown on the upper parts with light spotting, resembling a piece of tree bark, with white underparts. They have a long thin bill with a slight downward curve and a long stiff tail used for support as the bird creeps upwards. The male creeper has a slightly larger bill than the female. Brown creepers are smaller than white-breasted nuthatches but larger than golden-crowned kinglets.

Measurements:

 * Length: 4.7 - 5.5 in
 * Weight: 0.2 - 0.3 oz
 * Wingspan: 6.7 - 7.9 in

Its voice includes single very high pitched, short, often insistent, piercing calls; see, or swee. The song often has a cadence like; pee pee willow wee or see tidle swee, with notes similar to the calls. Creepers in California have songs of four to nine syllables, except in the San Bernardino Mountains, where there are as many as nine to thirteen syllables per song, but within the same two second time frame.

This species's avoidance of edges, cryptic plumage, and high-pitched vocalizations contribute to a low survey detection rate compared to other species.

Distribution, habitat and range
Brown creepers are both migratory and year-round residents in North America. Their breeding habitat is mature forests, especially conifers, in Canada, Alaska and the northeastern and western United States, and they are non-breeding in the southern part of the United States. They are permanent residents through much of their range; many northern birds migrate to the southern half of the United States. Brown creeper has occurred as a vagrant to Bermuda and Central America's mountains in Guatemala, Honduras and the northern cordillera of El Salvador. Since 1966 the brown creeper has experienced a yearly 1.5% population increase throughout the northeastern and northwestern (Pacific coast) regions of its range. The first breeding brown creepers in the Northwest Territories were detected in 2008, in the Liard Valley, which may be a result of northern range expansion.

As a migratory species with a northern range, this species is a conceivable vagrant to western Europe. However, it is intermediate in its characteristics between common treecreeper and short-toed treecreeper, and has sometimes in the past been considered a subspecies of the former, although its closest relative seems to be the latter (Tietze et al., 2006). Since the two European treecreepers are themselves among the most difficult species on that continent to distinguish from each other, a brown creeper would probably not even be suspected, other than on a treeless western island, and would be difficult to verify even then.

Brown creepers prefer mature, moist, coniferous forests or mixed coniferous/deciduous forests. They are found in drier forests as well, including Engelman Spruce and larch forest in eastern Washington. They generally avoid the rainforest of the outer coast. While they generally nest in hardwoods, conifers are preferred for foraging.

Breeding brown creepers generally require trees of a large diameter, whose deeper bark furrows support large amounts of bark-dwelling invertebrates such as spiders to make up a foraging substratum. They also require continual with a preference for Balsam Fir in their New Brunswick breeding range.

Brown creepers have been recorded breeding in the dry season (January–February) in Chalatenango Department, El Salvador, a behaviour unusual to insectivorous birds and shared in the region only by the golden-fronted woodpecker.

Subspecies
Thirteen subspecies are recognised:
 * C. a. alascensis Webster, JD, 1986 – central south Alaska
 * C. a. occidentalis Ridgway, 1882 – southeast Alaska, west Canada and west USA
 * C. a. stewarti Webster, JD, 1986 – islands off British Columbia (southwest Canada)
 * C. a. zelotes Osgood, 1901 – mountains of south Oregon to north, east, south California (west USA)
 * C. a. phillipsi Unitt & Rea, 1997 – central California (west USA)
 * C. a. montana Ridgway, 1882 – interior southwest Canada to central north and central USA
 * C. a. leucosticta Van Rossem, 1931 – south Nevada and Utah (central west USA)
 * C. a. americana Bonaparte, 1838 – south, east Canada and central north, northeast USA
 * C. a. nigrescens Burleigh, 1935 – central east USA
 * C. a. albescens Berlepsch, 1888 – southwest USA and northwest Mexico
 * C. a. alticola Miller, GS, 1895 – west, southwest, central Mexico
 * C. a. pernigra Griscom, 1935 – south Mexico and Guatemala
 * C. a. extima Miller, W & Griscom, 1925 – east Guatemala to Nicaragua

Conservation status
The species has declined in much of North America but appears to be doing well in Washington, with a small (not significant) increase on the state's breeding bird survey since 1966. As with many of Washington's birds, the Cascades divide this species into two subspecies.

In Wyoming, brown creepers have been recognized as preferring habitat within large, intact and mature stands of spruces, firs, or lodgepole pine. It is therefore potentially vulnerable to logging, climate change, or replacement of those tree species by Ponderosa pine. However, it is not considered a species of serious concern in that state.

In New Brunswick, brown creepers have been shown to respond negatively to even moderate forestry. Conservation efforts in the province have focused on maintaining unmanaged patches with high densities of trees and snags in mature forest.

Ivory-billed woodcreepers (Xiphorhynchus flavigaster) have been observed extracting brown creeper nestlings and dropping them away from the nest.

Behavior
Brown creepers forage on tree trunks and branches, typically zig-zagging upwards from the bottom of a tree trunk, and then flying down to the bottom of another tree. They creep slowly with their body flattened against the bark, probing with their beak for insects. They will rarely feed on the ground. They mainly eat small arthropods found in the bark, but sometimes they will eat seeds in winter.

Breeding
Breeding season typically begins in April. The female will make a partial cup nest either under a piece of bark partially detached from the tree, or in a tree cavity. It will lay 3–7 eggs, and incubation lasts approximately two weeks. Both of the parents help feed the chicks. Parents both take turns feeding nestlings and removing fecal sacs from the nest.

title: Brown creeper