We look forward to seeing our customers and clients at the following upcoming tradeshows!
We are exhibiting at each of the following shows – contact us for details or to schedule a meeting.
IT Expo Spring 2012 – Booth 1022
February 1-3 2012
Miami, FL
Channel Partners Spring 2012 – Booth 336
March 27-29 2012
Caesar’s Palace
Las Vegas, NV
CSF Corporation - A Comptel Member
Comptel Spring 2012 – Booth 321
April 15-18 2012
San Francisco, CA
This article originally appeared in the January 2011 issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY
With the growth of broadband e-commerce, mobile data, and flat-rate VoIP calling plans, many have expected that the toll-free voice industry simply would fade away into the sunset. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The toll-free voice and vanity number business is alive and growing, with new advertising models, personal enhanced services, and unified messaging helping to drive renewed growth in the industry. Popular toll-free numbers such as 1-800-FLOWERS, 1-800-THE-CARD, and the popular jingle from 1-877-KARS-FOR-KIDS have proven to be both effective, and even wildly viral. Using the right combination of technology and best practices, toll-free services providers today can provision, route, and manage their numbers more effectively, and offer their customers more competitive and innovative services.
When first introduced in 1967, toll-free voice services, commonly called 800 services by our parents, were an instant hit with businesses using catchy vanity phrases and “free” calling to attract new and existing customers. As a successful business, providing an easy to remember toll-free number for sales and support was good practice, and many landmark businesses through the years have made these numbers the center of their branding, and advertizing strategies.
With toll free firmly established and de-regulation a strong motivator, the FCC made toll-free numbers portable in 1993. This change established the SMS/800 national toll-free database, and enabled customers to switch service providers while retaining ownership of their toll-free numbers. Between 1993 and 2000, the quantity of working toll-free numbers grew rapidly, from 3.2 million in 1993 to more than 20 million in 2000. New toll-free codes were opened to meet this demand, including the 888 code in 1996, the 877 code in 1998, and the 866 code in 2000.
Toll free is still growing today, and in the past four years the number of working toll-free numbers has grown more than 26 percent from 22.7 million in December of 2006 to over 28.8 million in November of 2010. With the pool of available toll-free numbers dangerously low, the FCC recently opened the new 855 code in October of 2010, further energizing the toll-free industry by making new numbers available.
Why the accelerated growth? Throughout the past 40 years the toll-free industry has evolved, and with the convergence of wireline, wireless, and enhanced VoIP services, additional technologies now complement each other to drive additional growth. As an example, new web-based e-commerce sites often use toll-free vanity numbers for customer care and as an alternate ordering process for those who desire the live interaction of an attendant. Unified messaging, conference bridging, automatic attendant and find-me/follow-me services also use toll-free numbers, and with reduced toll-free carrier costs have made it possible for individuals to have their own personal toll-free numbers in a cost effective manner. For a carrier, having a competitive toll-free voice offering complements their VoIP, broadband data, unified messaging, wireless, and hosted services portfolios. End customers need this capability, and providers that have bundled toll free effectively with other services enjoy outstanding competitive differentiation.
With this growth in toll-free numbers, the number of responsible organizations, or resp orgs, that are licensed to acquire and manage toll-free numbers through the SMS/800 national database also has increased from 377 in September of 2007 to 409 in November of 2010. Resp orgs can be carriers, enhanced services providers, call centers, those in the vanity number business, or even large enterprise customers. Resp orgs must acquire and manage toll-free numbers in an effective manner, provision services through the SMS/800 national database, and route those numbers through the dedicated toll-free SCP network to long-distance carriers that carry their toll-free traffic.
Being an effective resp org requires having the ability and technology to acquire, manage, and route toll-free numbers with confidence. Integrating and automating these processes with existing carrier billing and operations support systems, providing end customer portal control for searching and reserving numbers, having the ability to provision rapidly during an emergency, being able to analyze and select routes intelligently to optimize costs, and having the tools for mining business intelligence from the SMS/800 national database are all important capabilities needed to be competitive. Resp orgs that implement best practices by adding automation and technology to their operations typically are able to reduce their toll-free provisioning costs by 20 percent to 50 percent, increase their toll-free revenues 5 percent to 10 percent, and decrease their external carrier costs using least-cost routing by 10 percent to 30 percent. Such results translate directly to market leadership and increased profitability.
Today’s toll-free carriers and resp orgs enjoy favorable toll-free industry trends through a combination of existing and new business models that help drive growth. Toll free is alive and evolving, and with a combination of technology and best practices can be made into a very profitable and growing business for any carrier or industry player.
Frank Lauria is vice president of CSF Corporation a provider of toll-free number management, provisioning and least-cost routing solutions.
855 toll free numbers will be made available to the public in late 2010. The tentative date for release is 10/01/10.
The existing toll free number pool of NPA’s 800, 866, 877, and 888 are nearly exhausted (per SMS/800). The current estimate for the exhaust date is 12/25/10.
Various techniques for the 855 release are still being reviewed and must be approved by the FCC. Techniques being discussed include percentage allocation of 855 numbers per RespOrg (based on the amount of active toll free numbers on the RespOrg), staggered openings (with limited 855 exchanges being opened per week), etc. We are actively participating in these industry discussions to make sure that we are fully prepared for the 855 release.
We have been in business for over 20 years, and we are the leading provider of SMS/800 interface products to the telecommunications industry. We help telecommunications carriers, CLECs, cable companies, and RespOrg’s large and small to acquire and manage toll free numbers. We also have helped hundreds of end users acquire toll free numbers with our 800forall.com site. Large or small – we ethically and fairly level the playing field to help our clients acquire the toll free numbers they need.
We are currently enhancing our 8MS and 800forall.com software product in anticipation of the 855 code opening. We are also expanding our industry leading 8MS software suite to help our clients acquire new 855 numbers. This proven technology was used 10 years ago during the 866 code opening – working with us offers you the best chance to acquire 855 toll free numbers.
If you are interested in acquiring 855 toll free numbers, simply call us today at 732-356-6999 or fill out the Contact form that can be found on the top menu of this page. We will work with you to help you understand the 855 release process, and keep you up to date on the latest FCC developments.
We will continue to provide updates on the 855 toll free number release here on our blog. Please check back frequently for more information, or use the RSS subscription feature so that you don’t miss any vital updates.
Responsible Organizations access the national SMS/800 database to reserve toll free numbers for their customer and to route the numbers on the appropriate long distance carriers.
Most RespOrgs are telephone carriers or companies. Other companies that apply for RespOrg status are enhanced voice mail providers, VoIP carriers, call tracking and marketing analytics firms, or vanity number firms. Keep in mind that any company or organization that can demonstrate the required skills and financial responsibility can apply to be a Resp Org.
There is a special classification of RespOrgs called Independent RespOrgs. These are firms that manage toll free numbers for a set of clients – some of these clients may themselves be RespOrgs, and and some may be companies in the telephony industry who are not RespOrg’s themselves.
Becoming a RespOrg is a relatively easy process. As it states on the SMS/800 website you must:
The following proposal is being sent to the FCC by the industry. It is not in place yet, but the recommendation will probably be accepted by the FCC soon.
“ATIS SNAC urges the Commission to instead limit toll free reservations by any one Resp Org to one-half of one percent (0.5%) of that Resp Org’s numbers in Working Status for the previous week, or 500 numbers, whichever is greater. This Toll Free Number Conservation Plan should remain in place until the release of the 855 SAC.”
We don’t have any more information than this at this time. More to come!
This is a tricky question. Everybody knows who owns 1-800-Flowers. But what if a company wants to acquire a specific toll free number that is not currently in the SMS/800 spare pool? How can they find the current owner to start a possible conversation?
The first option is research. Start with Google or another search engine, and see if you can find the company via their advertising. Sometimes you can find the number because it is listed with a directory listing service. Another way to go is call the number directly and see what you can find.
Active toll free numbers are stored in SMS/800 and associated with a RespOrg. One way to see the current RespOrg for a specific toll number is to visit our http://800forall.com site. As part of 800forall we have provided a free service called “Who Owns This Number”. Enter the number at the top of the screen, hit the “Who Owns This Number” button, and we will return the RespOrg and contact number for the RespOrg.
Did you know that every week SMS/800 releases a Number Administration Summary Report, reporting on used and unused toll free numbers? For the week ending Saturday, April 17, 2010, they show a total of 4,180,559 numbers remaining in the spare pool. The quantity of numbers in use increased by 6,925.
They also perform an analysis to attempt to predict an exhaust date. In detail they have reported:
© 2012 CSF Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Powered by Wordpress. Designed by 
