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In the early 1980s, Bell Labs received a patent for what became AT&T's "Advanced 800 Service", a computer-controlled system where any toll-free number could point to any destination number, such as to a small business local number instead of a special InWATS line, and an itemized bill generated only for the calls the business actually received.
CenturyLink grew as Century Telephone and later CenturyTel through acquiring many small and mid-size telephone companies. These include: CenturyTel of Chester, Inc. (Iowa, Minnesota) CenturyTel of Colorado, Inc. – formerly Universal Telephone; CenturyTel of Eagle, Inc. – formerly owned by Pacific Telecom
The system was redesigned in 1981 to use a database, the SMS/800 service management system, which could direct any toll-free number to any destination based on various conditions; number prefixes remained tied to specific carriers until a RespOrg (responsible organization) structure was introduced in 1993 (US) and 1994 (Canada) to allow ...
In the U.S., directory assistance for companies with toll-free "800 numbers" (with area codes 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, and 888) was available from toll-free directory assistance, reachable by dialing 1-800-555-1212, for many decades until it was discontinued in 2020. [citation needed]
[4] [5] In practice, some RespOrgs do abuse the system by stockpiling millions of toll-free numbers for advertising purposes, because the enforcement of the regulations has been weak and sporadic. This situation has led to periodic creation of overlay plan toll-free area codes to prevent exhaustion of the SMS/800 available number pool.
Toll-free telephone service is a telecommunication service in which subscribers are assigned telephone number in NPAs 800, 888, 877, 866, 855, 844, and 833. Calls to these numbers incur no toll charges for callers. The American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) first introduced 800 toll-free service in 1967. [2]
Qwest Corporation, doing business as CenturyLink QC, is a Regional Bell Operating Company owned by Lumen Technologies. It was originally named Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company , later becoming known as Mountain Bell , then US West Communications, Inc. from 1991 to 2000.
An automatic number announcement circuit (ANAC) is a component of a central office of a telephone company that provides a service to installation and service technicians to determine the telephone number of a telephone line. The facility has a telephone number that may be called to listen to an automatic announcement that includes the caller's ...