Plans are in development now (June, 1995) for 'International Freephone
Service' using 'country code' 800 -- as in 011-800-xxxxxxx, etc as
a way to allow standardized toll-free (to the caller) calling all over
the world.

Each country will continue to have its own internal 'toll free service'
if they choose to do so, just as the USA/Canada now have 1-800 service.
A few other countries use variations on this such as 0800 in the UK.

But 011-800 (to use the USA's method of making international calls as
an example; the '011' part will be whatever each country uses for
accessing the international network) will be international in scope.

This has not come without a lot of controversy and conflict. Many USA
users of 800 service have expressed a fear that there will be a lot
of confusion in the minds of consumers and others where popular and
well known *USA internal* 800 numbers are concerned. The example often
given is 800-FLOWERS, a number used in the USA to electronically order
flowers sent to another person anywhere. What will happen, say the
critics, if a business elsewhere in the world is allowed to have the
number 011-800-FLOWERS?  Will this new business steal calls and cus-
tomers from the existing one?

For this reason, many USA 800 subscribers believe that when International
Freephone is started, the 800 numbers currently assigned to American
business places should be immediatly duplicated in the 011-800 form.
That is, instead of the proposed open period where businesses can sign
up for numbers in 011-800 in a free-for-all way, they want the businesses
with American 800 numbers to get first pick of the new style.

For more information on this topic, write to producer@pipeline.com.
She (Judith) is involved actively in this issue and has written about
it on several occassions in TELECOM Digest. You might also check
through back issues of the Digest for more information on this topic.


Patrick Townson
Telecom Archives   June 8, 1995