What Is Toll Free?

We’ve all heard the term “toll free number.” Nearly all of us have called a toll free number at one time or another. But just what does that term mean and how do businesses go about getting toll free numbers?

You know that toll free telephone numbers must be something special because you aren’t assigned one automatically. When you order landline, VoIP or cellular telephone service, you are assigned a 10 digit phone number that relates to a specific geographical area. I’ll assume you are located in the US or Canada, which both use the North America Numbering Plan (NANP). Your number is formatted as: 1-NPA-NXX-XXXX.

Here’s how that breaks down. 1 is the trunk code or country code. Other countries use codes other than "1". It used to be that we thought of dialing 1 only to make a long distance call. Nowadays, with multiple area codes for each city, most of us have to dial 1 plus the area code even to make local calls. NPA is the Numbering Plan Area code, also called the area code. You might dial area code 312 for Chicago or 213 for Los Angeles. By knowing the area code, you know roughly where the call is going. That can be manipulated somewhat by VoIP providers, who will assign you whatever area code you want. Do you want people to think your business is in Manhattan? Get a 212 area code.

There are some area codes that have nothing to do with geographical areas. These are the toll free area codes, also called toll free prefixes. “Toll” means a charge by the phone companies for making calls that go outside of your city or local area. Therefore, “toll free” must mean that the calls are free of charge, right?

Actually, toll free is a misnomer. What that term means is that the calls are free for the calling party, who normally pays the toll charges on long distance calls. With a toll free number, the charges are automatically reversed. The caller gets a free call. The person who owns the toll free number gets charged for any incoming calls.

To get a toll free number assigned to you, you have to order one specifically. You can easily do that online from companies that specialize in marketing toll free numbers. There are two different types of toll free calling plans. You can pay a small fee for the number plus a small maintenance charge each month plus the cost of incoming calls by the minute. The other option is to pay a fixed fee each month for use of the toll free number regardless of how many or few calls you receive or how long you talk.

Toll free numbers are easily identified by their prefixes or area codes. The original toll free numbers all used the 800 prefix. Customers call you at your toll free number of 1-800-NXX-XXXX. The NXX-XXXX is your unique toll free number. As long as you are paying for the number, all calls will come to you. If you decide to give up the number, it will eventually be assigned to someone else.

Just how do you get those toll free calls? They come in on whatever phone you assign them to. Unlike a regular phone line, a toll free number isn’t assigned to a particular wired connection or wireless phone. Instead, you assign a “ring-to” number to the toll free number. When a toll free call comes in, it will ring to the phone number that you have specified. That can come in handy if you won’t be near your office phone but are expecting an important call. Change the ring-to number to have your toll free calls sent to your cell phone or other phone. The only thing you can’t do is have one toll free number call another. The ring-to number has to be a real phone line.

Toll free numbers have become so popular that other area codes beyond 800 have also been assigned for toll free service. These include 888, 877, 866 and 855. You can choose any of these prefixes for your toll free number since they all work the same way.

Flat Rate Toll Free Numbers

How would you like to have a toll free number for your business without the worry that you’ll never know how big your bill will be each month? What you are looking for is flat rate toll free service. Your bill is the same every month and you’ll get dozens of features included at no extra cost. Best of all, there’s no risk to try it because you can get a 14 day free trial of flat rate toll free service.

The flat rate service from iTeleCenter is just $49 a month for unlimited calls. You pay no per minute charges, no extra fees for features, no activation fees, no surcharges or hidden fees, no confusing plans and no contracts.

What are some of those special calling features? You get professional grade business phone service such as an auto attendant with main greeting voicemail to email or text transmission, multiple extension mailboxes, online faxing, follow-me call forwarding and 30 additional features.

How about the numbers available? You have two choices in how you pick your toll free number. The first way is to simply select from a list of 10 assorted numbers that are available. These have the prefixes 800, 866, 877 and 888. If you see one you like, just click on the radio button and proceed to order it. If not, then click the “generate more numbers” button and you’ll get a new list.

The other method is to search for a custom vanity number. What is a vanity number? That’s a phone number that spells out a word or phrase using the letters that appear on the numbers of the telephone dial. You can specify any available toll free prefix, or limit your search to 855 or 866 or 877 or 888. You can also use * for wildcard digits. Those are digits where you really don’t care what number comes up. Let’s try a couple of examples and see what we get.

Say you’re in the water conditioning business and want a memorable toll free number to advertise. We’ll say any prefix is OK and that we want the term “water” to be in the toll free number. Enter “water” into the search box and press the search button. Voila! Here’s what we get. There are 10 different toll free numbers available and they all spell out water within the number. You can choose from (877) 95WATER, (855) 60WATER, (877) WATGER88 and another seven options. Don’t much care for these? Click on the Generate More Numbers button and you’ll get another 10 options. These include (855) WATER08, (855) WATER30 and seven more that are similar.

Got the idea? You may want to play around with this search engine a bit to get something that relates to your business and is easy to remember. Note that 855 is a newly added toll free prefix. You’ll likely have more options with the 855 prefix than the others because it has only been available for about a year.

What makes this system better than old-school toll free number ordering is both the interactive vanity search feature plus instant availability of your chosen toll free number. That’s right. You select the number you want and then place your order online right away before anybody else gets the same idea. That starts your 14 day free trial period. Play around with the features, decide how much of an asset this is for your business, and keep using that number as long as you keep your toll free service.