Spelling Trouble with 800 Toll Free Vanity Numbers

With the advent of toll free numbers, many companies have found a phone service luxury that provided their business with positive benefits and comfort. But for AT&T, it was a different story. The advantages that they have expected from this number have backfired against the telecommunication giant. This vanity number spat between AT&T and MCI in the early 1990s has remained the most famous communication fiasco of all time.

For the purpose of making collect calls, MCI has introduced their 1-800-COLLECT toll free vanity number to the American public. This newly introduced and easy to remember phone number was a huge success since it offers the much lower collect call rates as compared to that of AT&T. With MCI doing huge advertising and marketing campaigns for their services, AT&T felt that it is time to make their own marketing move in order to stay on track with the competition.

To directly compete with MCI’s new number, AT&T introduced their own vanity 800 number: 1-800-OPERATOR. AT&T sensed that introducing a new collect call number would not be enough. So, they made their own advertising campaigns by offering discounted collect call rates to match that of MCI’s.


Now that both companies are already equipped with phone words and competitive call rates, the war of collect-call service has begun. AT&T did not expect that most of their customers would mistakenly spell out their number as 1-800-OPERATER when dialing. It won’t turn out bad if this error would still redirect the call to AT&T. But, unfortunately, it was directed to its competitor since 1-800-OPERATER was owned by MCI. It was a big loss to AT&T.  MCI, on the other hand, reportedly earned $500,000 for their rival’s mishap.

After AT&T recognized this debacle, the old number was ceased and the new 800 vanity number was announced: 1-800-CALL-ATT.

The Role of FCC on Toll Free Service

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is an independent government agency in the US that was established to control and standardize both the international and interstate communications. The agency covers the following: cable, radio, satellite, television, telephone, wire, etc. FCC was created under the Communication Act of 1934 and all the 50 US states including the territories under its jurisdiction.

FCC plays a notable role in the toll free service industry as well. The commission is also responsible for regulating the rules in obtaining and using the toll free phone numbers and that they cannot be put up for sale. Even if these special telephone numbers are in the public domain, brokering/hoarding is still prohibited although there are some who practice the idea. This prompted the agency in filing court motion to clarify the system. The regulations include:

• Allocation of toll free numbers is on a first-come, first-served basis.

• Subscribers are not allowed to allocate more numbers.

• RespOrg (Responsible Organizations) are not allowed to reserve a number without a properly identified subscriber. This illegal practice is also known as hoarding.

• A reserved number must be allocated within eight months. This mandate prevents RespOrg in hoarding numbers.

Vanity numbers are now targeted for the illegal selling despite of the regulation and mandates made by FCC.

The agency also ruled out the implementation of 1800 numbers portability. This regulation states that subscribers are allowed to switch to different providers or carriers without changing their number. With this rule, subscribers are not locked with their carriers thus increasing the competition among the providers.

Unfortunately, FCC has limitations as well since it has no access to the SMS/800 database and it cannot provide the status of 0800 numbers.

The Advantages of Owning Toll Free Phone Numbers

To provide better customer satisfaction and to apply an effective marketing strategy toll free numbers are the right telecommunication tools to supplement the needs of a growing business. Owning such a special number provides the business with an easy connectivity with its customers.

Maximizing the business with a proper communication device will enable a business to gain toll free advantages over the competition. Because of its free nature, a customer can call the business for an inquiry, support, order or other services without getting charge for the call. Therefore, providing the business with better customer care.

A satisfied customer will seek the business by placing orders or making inquiries about a product or service. This gives the business more chances of selling its products and to gain potential customers. Coupling it with efficient and productive sales team will boost and create more sales.

Customers may come and go due to a flawed service, product or support. One solution to bring back the trust of lost customers is by offering a toll free service to let them know that the business is fairing well and has improved. Old customers will definitely reconsider going back especially if they have been patronizing a certain product or service for quite some time.

Having won back the trusts of consumers and provided better customer support the next benefit a business can gain, when utilizing a toll free number, is a professional corporate image. Customers will be convinced that the company is serious in doing business and providing excellent services for them. This in return will put the business in par with other larger corporations.