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Toll Free Inbound Service
800-888-877-866 numbers

Toll free numbers used to be only thought of as a way for a business to solicit calls from potential customers. Today, more and more homeowners are signing up for these numbers; indeed the demand has become so great that the 800 series of numbers has been almost totally been used up, requiring the telephone companies to start three new series, 888, 866 and 877, to quadruple the number of available toll-free numbers. So now you can have a toll-free number, piggybacked on your existing telephone number.

How it works

When you request a toll-free number, a search is made for available numbers. The selected number is then "attached" to your telephone, so that your telephone rings whether the caller dials your local telephone number or your toll-free number. You do not need a separate telephone or telephone line to receive toll-free calls. Your local telephone number becomes the "Ring-On Number", the "Ring-to Number," the "destination number" or the "termination number" of the toll-free number. You cannot tell the difference by the way your phone rings, the quality of the transmission or any other way.

Why would you want a toll-free number?

Obviously, toll-free numbers are an advantage to businesses. But homeowners can find benefits as well.

Check your answering machine

When you are on vacation, it is frequently a good idea to check with your answering machine to find out who has been trying to reach you. Using a calling (travel) card is much more expensive.

Children away at college

Your kids are away at college and you want them to call home. So you give them a calling card, and they call everybody but you and you are paying a huge bill for their calls. Give them your toll-free number and the only one they call for free is you!

Elderly parents or folks you know

Individuals living on a fixed income are often reluctant to make any phone calls if there is an expense associated with the call. Give them your toll-free number and they can call and check in with you as often as they want.

Home business

If you run your business from your home, you can create the image of a bigger business with a toll-free number. You may have several 800-888-877 numbers ringing on the same telephone line, for example, if you want to track the effectiveness of different advertising campaigns, by assigning a different toll-free number to each ad medium.

Click here for some other innovative ways to use toll-free service

How much will toll free service cost me?

We charge no fee to sign up for toll-free service. There is small $1.00 a month charge for each toll-free number. You may have multiple toll free numbers. All inbound calls from the continental US are charged at the same rate as outbound calls you make on your telephone. Like all of our calls, billing is in 6 second increments.

We can now offer toll free service for out-of state calls at 5.4¢ a minute, and as low as 3.3¢ minute for calls within the state, depending on your state and the size of your monthly bill. Anybody in California can get service within the state for 3.9¢ a minute.

Are there disadvantages?

Yes, you pay for every completed call, whether it was accurately dialed or not. You can place restrictions on the calls to limit the number of wrong numbers. Of course, with six-second billing and an 18 second minimum, most wrong numbers will cost you only 2¢ each, unless you like talking to strangers. You can exclude (called blocking) specific area codes (for example, your own!), you can block specific calling prefixes within an area code; you can have a toll-free number which will only be reached from California or some other location which you specify. Your number is not directory listed unless you request it (for a fee) and you can control to whom you give your number.

You are billed a surcharge of 60¢ for each call made to your number from a pay telephone to compensate the coin telephone owner for the use of his/her phone. A fee is mandated by the F.C.C. and affects all toll free numbers accounts of any telephone service provider. See the next paragraph for an extended discussion of this policy.

Coin-operated telephones

The problem with all toll free numbers dialed from a pay telephone in the past was that the owner of the coin telephone received no income from those calls. The owner's solution was to prevent anyone from using their phones to make a toll-free call. Of course the caller may not know any other number for that party except the toll-free number - for example calling card access numbers. A solution has been agreed upon by the FCC. The owner of the toll-free number now must pay a surcharge (ours is 60¢) on every call made to that number from a pay phone. When you use your travel card from a pay phone, the 60¢ charge will be added to your telephone bill. The coin telephone owner does deserve to be paid for every use of his/her phone. We suggest that you inform your friends/children/relatives to whom you provide your toll free number that they only use a private telephone to call you, and use a coin telephone only in an emergency.

If you think that you can use a cell phone to replace a land line phone, click here. Your toll free number can be used in some truly innovative ways. Click here for a few of these.

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Page revised September 5, 2005.

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