Toll-Free Service (800, 888, 877, 866)

Telephone Numbers Assigned for Toll-Free Service (800, 888, 877, 866)
(Summary December 1993 - December 2004) *( Source: FCC 2005 )*


		Working		Miscellaneous		Total		Spare Toll-Free
Year	Month	Toll-Free		Toll-Free		Toll-Free		Numbers
		Numbers		Numbers ¹		Numbers		Still
						Assigned		Available


1993	December		3,155,955		731,438		3,887,393		3,822,607
1994	December		4,948,605		763,235		5,711,840		1,998,160
1995	December		6,700,576		286,487		6,987,063		722,937
1996	December		9,527,982		945,671		10,473,653		5,216,347
1997	December		12,980,714		996,449		13,977,163		1,712,837
1998	December		16,200,883		965,466		17,166,349		6,503,651
1999	December		19,677,001		1,101,964		20,778,965		2,891,035
2000	December		23,022,015		1,178,096		24,200,111		7,449,889
2001	December		23,453,029		1,027,973		24,481,002		7,168,998
2002	December		22,496,215		1,051,232		23,547,447		8,102,553
2003	December		21,108,662		941,520		22,050,182		9,599,818
2004	December		22,159,440		1,145,661		23,305,101		8,344,899

Note: For individual month assignments through June 2003, see Industry Analysis and Technology Division, Wireline Competition Bureau, Trends in Telephone Service (August 2003). * Toll-free (800) service was initially offered by AT&T in 1967. On May 1, 1993, procedures for routing toll-free calls were changed and 800 numbers were made "portable" so customers who switched service providers could retain their numbers. Due to the growth in toll-free numbers, a new toll-free calling code, 888, was added in March 1996, which made it possible to assign about 8 million new toll-free numbers. A third toll-free calling code, 877, was added in April 1998; and a fourth toll-free code, 866, was added in July 2000. * Miscellaneous numbers include those in the 800, 888, 877, and 866 service management systems maintained by Database Service Management, Inc., and categorized as reserved, assigned but not yet activated, recently disconnected, or suspended.

Working Toll-Free Numbers (Numbers in Millions)

Telephone Numbers Assigned for Toll-Free Service (800, 888, 877, 866)