0
Toll-free numbers are very common nowadays in businesses. They have been proven effective when in comes to telemarketing, customer service, advertising and branding. Because of their free nature, toll-free numbers provides customers a convenient way of contacting a business.

To avail of this service requires some understanding on how it is assigned. Due to  popularity and growing demand of the system, a governing entity was required to be built in order to manage and control this service. These governing bodies are Responsible Organizations (RespOrgs), 800 Service Management System (SMS/800) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

In the US and Canada, toll-free numbers are managed by RespOrgs. There are around 400 RespOrgs in North America that services about 10,000 companies. Among the popular RespOrgs are AT&T, RingCentral, Verizon, MCI, Sprint and Bell. These service providers alone have access to a business 0800 numbers list on the SMS/800 database. A company who wants to obtain a toll-free number directly transacts with them and reserve a number, depending on its status, on a first-come, first-served basis.

SMS/800 is the center of this toll-free service. They administer the availability of a number. They also provides services and a business 0800 number list, as a database, that RespOrgs can access.

Now, FCC provides the regulation. Subscribers to toll-free numbers before are locked to their providers. Meaning they cannot switch to another carrier without losing their number. With proper regulations, portability provided a way to switch between different service providers.

In short, the world of 0800 numbers can be compared to an internet service, where RespOrgs play the role of registrars, SMS/800 as the internet, FCC as the W3C Consotium and businesses/home as the subscribers.