Toll-free number

From VoIP.ms Wiki

A toll-free number allows others to reach you from within one country (or within North America) without incurring long-distance tolls. As the long-distance charges are paid by the recipient, these DIDs are per-minute and carry a slightly higher cost than local inbound numbers. See Ordering a Toll Free Number and Porting a Toll Free Number for details on obtaining a toll-free number.

North America

As of 2013, North American toll-free numbers begin with +1-800, +1-855, +1-866, +1-877 and +1-888. In the original North American toll-free area code, +1-800, new toll-free numbers which spell meaningful phonewords have long been hard to come by due to widespread abuse of the system. A 2011 Associated Press report indicates one company alone is hoarding 1.7 million of these numbers [1] but nothing has been done, largely due to FCC unwillingness to enforce existing regulations against hoarding, warehousing and brokering. At most times, the North American "Service Management System (SMS/800)" database behind https://www.voip.ms/m/customtollfree.php will have no available +1-800 or +1-888 numbers (although quite a few +1-855's remain available).

This leaves a few options:

• An existing +1-800 can be ported in from another carrier.
• A number (including a vanity number) may be obtained more easily in a newer area code, such as +1-855 or +1-866.
• If +1-855-(yourname) is gone, try a few other alternatives - +1-855-(your product name), +1-855-(the last seven digits of your local number), anything which looks vaguely memorable. If these fail, buy an ordinary toll-free DID number which spells nothing as (at least in +1-855) these are available for immediate activation from inventory.
• There are a few companies which act as RespOrgs (supposedly, "responsible organisation" - in tollfree numbers, a role similar to a registrar for Internet names) specifically to "drop-catch" expired +1-800 numbers as they become available. It is possible to obtain a number from a site like tollfreenumbers.com and port it into voip.ms (as these services don't provide anything more than a temporary, US-only redirection) but this is an expensive, time-consuming option.
• The US FCC is allowing carriers to accept orders for +1-844 starting December 7, 2013. These numbers will be placed in service in 2014. If +1-800-(your company name) is gone, it may be a good idea to grab the number in the new area code when it becomes available, as the process will rapidly devolve into a landrush of attempts to get the best numbers - especially if they contain generic terms like +1-800-FLOWERS where the corresponding number in every other toll-free area code is long gone.
• If you feel you absolutely must engage a US lawyer to contact the Federal Communications Commission and demand that some phone-sex scammer stop hoarding "your" number (along with a million others), it might be a good idea to grab and publish a plain +1-855 in the meantime as the process is slow and the outcome not guaranteed. In some cases (like +1-800-HOLIDAY vs. +1-800-H0LIDAY, with a zero in place of the 'O') a fight involving a distinctive number has been dragged all the way to the appeal courts.

In general, once you have your toll-free DID, it works in much the same way as any other inbound number.

A few practical considerations:

• If you market primarily to one large city (and its suburbs), obtaining a local number in that city may be a viable alternative to a toll-free number. It has no premium cost, it looks local and any inbound wrong number calls will usually be from just the one local area. Conversely, a national toll-free number can be a means to avoid needing multiple local numbers from multiple cities and is easily brandable.
• It may be best to leave a local number on your outbound caller ID. There's no technical restriction on displaying +1-855-555-5555 or similar, but too many of these calls currently are telemarketers, fly-by-night bill collectors or other undesired enquiries. Many called parties will therefore hesitate to answer a call from any unfamiliar non-geographic number.
• Calls from US pay phones would be notoriously expensive, were they permitted, as the owner of the pay phone is paid generously per call.
• Calls from Alaska, Hawaii and the three Canadian territories (+1-867) are also typically not accepted due to their premium cost.
• Caribbean toll-free numbers normally cover one country only, despite their use of the seemingly-familiar North American +1-areacode-number format.
• Calls from another country code, with rare exception, will fail. "The number you have dialled is not available from your calling area." Most advertisers will list a local number and a toll-free number so as to avoid becoming unreachable in this manner.
• Inbound wrong numbers are a potential problem, especially if your number is one digit away from some huge consumer corporation. It may be best to wait a few days after your number is activated and working before printing it on advertisements and business cards; if the 'phone rings off the hook with misdialled calls, it's not too late to request some other number. Typically, this issue is worst in true +1-800 or longer-established overlays (such as +1-888) and less of a problem for subscribers with +1-855-(whatever random digits were available) as very large corporations brand themselves very thoroughly with a long-established national +1-800 number.
• Know what calling area you want before you order; one toll-free number to cover all of the US and Canada is possible, but adds cost and increases the number of inbound wrong numbers. While https://www.voip.ms/m/callerid_filtering.php is one option to limit what area codes can call, it may make sense to decide whether calls from another country are desired when initially choosing a carrier.

International

A country code +800 nominally exists for international calls but is rarely used. Typically, toll-free numbers are obtained separately for each country in which they are to be used - so an Australian toll-free covers only Australia.

See Order a DID Number#Ordering an International DID number and Order a DID Number#Ordering an International Toll Free Number.