800-Name?? What is it?

The first two answers given are correct but may not make clear how the 800-Name is used.

In the US, Canada, and the Caribbean, a telephone interconnection system with instruments with faces of US design is used. On the face of these instruments, there is a dial with the digits 1 through 9 and then 0, and superimposed on the positions for 2 through 9 are groups of 3 letters; A,B, & C are associated with “2”, and then the subsequent letter triplets are associated with the digits to follow. The letters Q and Z are not used.

A number beginning with 800 is utilizing the conventional position for an “area code” to indicate “toll-free call”. There are other prefixes for the same purpose; at present they are 888, 877, and 866.

The 7 digits which customarily follow the area code can be advertised as a sequence of 7 letters (or letters and digits) so that the caller can use a mnemonic device, like a company Name, to assist in dialing. Once the connection to the destination is made, then any extra digits dialed might be sensed by the destination instrument. Generally there is time to press an 8th and a 9th letter shown by the advertiser without any harm being done. The interconnection (dialing computer) will ignore those extra digits.

This method of remembering how to dial a business can be used in other countries, but in many places around the world, the digits associated with letters are different, so there can be no truly international dialing mnemonic.

Like the example cited, if a number is like

800-MCARTHUR,

in mobile phones you could have seen like each number has a set of letters in the alphabet printed along with it:

2-abc

3-def

4-ghi

5-jkl

6-mno

7-pqrs

8-tuv

9-wxyz

So the number 800-MCARTHUR will be decoded as 800-62278487.

It is usually a way companies promote their business. Example: for a lawyer’s office called MacArthur they may have 800-MACARTHUR or something along those lines. It is also a mnemonic device that will help you remember the phone number. Because it is much easier to remember a name then a string of random numbers.

Hope this helps answers your question.

R

I got, 52-3, the number you dialed is invalid, please check the number or area code you have dialed. I have a seven letter name. I can’t believe I actually dialed but I’m bored!

It’s usually the numbers that are the telephone number of the company. They tell you a word so you’ll remember the numbers to press, more easily. That’s all.