What Are the Toll-Free Prefixes?
Toll-free numbers are phone numbers that you can call without worrying about incurring long-distance charges, no matter where the recipient of the call is located. The charges incurred are instead given to the recipient of your call.
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History
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Toll-free phone numbers have allowed companies' customers to call them for free since 1967.
Function
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Toll-free phone numbers are literally just a more automatic alternative to collect calling. They have found modern usage primarily in increasing customer satisfaction for businesses that want to allow their customers to call them for free.
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Prefixes
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The toll-free prefixes are 800, 866, 877 and 888. Other numbers have been reserved for future expansion, including 822, 833, 844, 855, 880 through 887 and 889.
Availability
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Toll-free phone numbers are available to anyone, not just companies. It is even possible to have your home phone line be a toll-free number.
Warning
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Not all phone numbers that start with "1-8" are toll-free numbers; some local prefixes also begin with an "8." Also, 900 numbers aren't toll-free; they are often more expensive than long-distance calls. Calls made to toll-free numbers using a cell phone are charged at their normal rate.
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