A recent US News and World Report article on Friday said that The FDA is considering requiring all TV ads for drugs to include toll free numbers for consumers to report adverse effects. They’re already required for print ads. Consumers could report side effects, but critics want agency to act, not wait years

The FDA understands that toll free numbers are great tools for increasing consumer feedback. You may not be conducting drug studies or even running large TV ad campaigns, but a memorable toll free number can give you that consumer oriented, big company image. There’s also no better proof that they’re a necessary part of doing business, than to have them required by the federal government.

J2 Global Communications a Los Angeles based provider of outsources, messaging d communication services and probably best known for it’s Efax product line announced on May 15th that they had purchased Phone People, an enhanced voicemail service provider. J2 already had a somewhat similar product with Onebox.

Phone People was a fairly new service which was previously TollFreeLive.com, one of the companies we warned people about. It had deceptive pricing, no customer service at all, and a history of holding their customer’s numbers hostage. We have a good relationship with Jfax though and hopefully a larger organization will continue to clean up and improve their business.

Can an easy to dial 800 number (not even from the US, but in Australia!) really cost as much as a Steve Austin’s bionic arm, eye and legs? This may sound extreme, but the right phone number can definitely make the response rate to all of your advertising “Better than it was before. Better, stronger, faster!”

Yes, the FCC has regulations against hoarding and brokering toll free numbers in the US, but there are no such regulations in Australia where 800 number sales are already going into the millions of dollars. Now anyone can offer an item at any price they want and you may be able to negotiate a million dollars off. See http://1800123456.com.au/ to place your offers or watch some cheesy videos. But the real point is just that the right toll free number can be invaluable to your business.

Click Here to leave a comment about this or whether you think it would be good to have an open market like this in the US?

CallSource.com, a shared use and routing company nabbed almost half of the 22,000 new toll free numbers released on 2/15. It only took about two minutes for all 22,000 numbers converted from RCC numbers into regular toll free numbers to be exhausted and Call Source got almost HALF of them. How many of them were taken for actual end users is an interesting question though and they weren’t the only ones that got a huge chunk either.

Who else took 30% of the RCC 800 #s released?

We’ve already had over 200 of the new RCC numbers ordered. The best RCC numbers are going extremely fast! Many people are ordering multiple numbers, which is smart because unfortunately no matter how fast we are, we won’t be able to get all of the numbers that are requested.

We have also simplified the order process if you wish to order multiple numbers. All you need to do is pay for one number and list the rest of the numbers you want in the Comments, Instructions or Questions, box at the bottom of the form.

The best way to find the new numbers is to select 800 for the area code and enter ***-WORD in the Instant 800 Lookup at TollFreeNumbers.com. If it says Click to order now! ($59), then that number is going to be available. You can order that number online either individually or with a list of numbers, that you put into the comment box at the bottom of the order form. There are examples in the comments on this post about Ordering numbers from the new exchange.

You can order the new 1-800 numbers being released one at a time, and pay $59 when you place the order and can enter one or two alternatives for that order in the comments box. If we don’t get that number or any of the alternatives we will refund the order.

If you prefer to order a list of multiple numbers, you can do that with the same order form by putting the entire list in the comments field and making the quantity half of the numbers you ordered. If we get less than half you’ll be refunded the difference and you’ll be charged $59 each for each additional numbers that we’re able to get for you above what you paid for.
There's more about the order process

The SMS announced that the 16 exchanges in the “1-800″ toll free area code, previously reserved for RCC use (Radio Common Carrier) were being opened up for general use on February 15th. This means 160,000 potential 1-800 numbers however 138,000 of these numbers are still in use so ultimately about 22,000 new numbers will become available. We have compiled a list of the numbers being released and will be marking these numbers available to preorder on 1/15.
CLICK HERE for the list of exchanges and how to request a #

12/20/07 AT&T recently announced that it was rolling out nationwide their ad-supported directory assistance. They have been testing it and this is no doubt in response to Google’s 1-800 GOOG-411 ad supported service and 1-800 FREE-411. I think this is also a big clue to where the future is heading.
the full story hints at the future of communications

Should a government agency be allowed to take 800 SUICIDE away from a suicide prevention organization?

You may remember the 1-800 RED CROSS case, and thought that it was a unique case and situation. I heard the slippery slope argument but didn’t honestly think that it would open the flood gates. After all, the Red Cross is the name of a specific organization with a unique roll in disaster support around the world. However in light of the way a government agency is trying to use the courts to take 800 & 888 SUICIDE away from a well respected and highly decorated nationwide suicide prevention organization is not only appalling but it clearly undermines the entire toll free system.

The Kristin Brooks Hope Center has handled over 2 million calls (about 650 per day) on these numbers and maintains round the clock staff utilizing a nationwide network of trained local crisis workers. They have received numerous awards and honors. Yet the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration which formerly provided some of the funding to KBHC, sought to take the 1-800 SUICIDE numbers away from this suicide prevention organization, and got a temporary order based mainly on allegations that KBHC, the rightful end customer of the number is or may be unable to continue it’s operations.
Read more about how your rights are under assault

I just saw a cute website that is a great example of a site and brand name built on a good vanity number. I believe 1-800 MUFFINS is just rolling out today. We didn’t get them the number directly but we did get them the number that got them started into the vanity business. So they’re not our direct customers but they’re a second cousin, and have done a nice job with their website and I just thought they deserved a short plug.

1-800-ASSISTANT  has partnered with  Search-To-Phone mobile. Search-To-Phone’s new voice-driven search platform is designed to match callers and service providers in several yellow page categories. 

This new field is growing but has gotten the attention of several major players such as Google and 1-800 FREE-411.  Their challenge will be differentiating and showing enough unique value to gain enough vendors to make their service valuable to the callers.

The technology and potential market and uses for this type of service are certainly exciting and will help to propel this great brand name number.

(PRWeb) February 6, 2007 — The answer is that only four of the 68 superbowl commercials this year contained Toll Free Numbers. Bill Quimby, the founder and president of TollFreeNumbers.com, also pointed out that all of them were vanity numbers or numbers with letters that spell things instead of digits, because that makes them much more memorable and is extremely important for branding.

The four commercials that included phone numbers were E-Trade (Getting robbed by your bank) 877-E-TRADE-4, HP (Orange County Choppers) 800-525-MYHP, Flomax (kayaking) 877-4-FLOMAX and E-trade again (1 finger) 877-E-TRADE-4.

This is down from nine commercials last year because some advertisers, even ones with prominent vanity numbers didn’t include them in their commercials this year. FedEx for example didn’t include 1-800 GO-FEDEX. They also downsized the domain name too, to make it much smaller and less prominent. Even Sprint and T-Mobile, both of which are obviously phone companies, didn’t include their toll free vanity numbers.

The Superbowl is all about branding, so it’s not really that big of a surprise that the companies spending the millions of dollars to advertise on the Superbowl aren’t really looking to create a “direct response” such as sending viewers to their website or get them to call. Maybe it’s also partially because the audience is so big that getting even a small percent to call would create a spike that would be difficult to handle.

Whatever the reasons, some Superbowl advertisers seem to have opted not to include their phone numbers and downsized their domain names. At the same time, a few companies have made specialized sites or pages specifically for their campaign, such as SnackStrongProductions.com.

Mr. Quimby explained that noticing vanity numbers is an occupational hazard. He has literally helped tens of thousands of companies find great vanity numbers through his Internet service TollFreeNumbers.com. His business model is very similar to another famous Superbowl advertiser, GoDaddy’s, except that instead of domain names, he gets his customers memorable toll free numbers for a one time fee of $49. Unlike regular phone companies, he’s not trying to sell the ongoing use of the number, just helping customers get better numbers in ways the big phone companies don’t.