800 number service

A Freephone telephone number used in most of the world (or toll-free number in North America, and Freecall number in Australia) is a special telephone number, in which the calling party is not charged for the call by the telephone operator. Instead the called party pays all of the charges for the call to the telephone operator, usually based on factors such as the amount of usage the number experiences, the cost of the trunk lines to the facility, and possibly a monthly flat rate service charge. They are commonly used by businesses but it is possible to get a toll free number for a residence or cell phone. The called party usually recoups these charges in a number of ways:

Toll-free numbers in the North American Numbering Plan are sometimes called "800 numbers" after the original area code which was used to dial them. They include the area codes 800, 888 (since 1995), 877 (since 1997), 866 (since 2000), 855 (since 2000 although not yet in use), 844, 833 and 822 (the last three are not yet active but reserved). When they first appeared toll-free numbers were often referred to as in-WATS numbers (see WATS lines). The standard way of writing a telephone number is +country code (area code) prefix-number, i. e. : +1 (555) 555-5555. ValleyNet has 800-number service for our traveling subscribers.