Re: Remembering Old Zenith Numbers

> I think it was around 1970 that 800 numbers began to appear. One

>> thing I've realized is that back then a lot of companies still had >> regional offices -- things weren't as centralized as they are now. So >> calling an airline in your city would connect you to the airline's >> office in your city. Later on as computer tie-lines became cheaper >> and more usable things were centralized as they are today. Companies >> put their call centers in remote locations where buildings and labor >> were cheap. > When 800 numbers first went in, airlines already had massive call > centers. American Airlines call center was in a suburb of Fort Worth, > while the huge computers already in existence were underground in > Tulsa, where they remain to this day. Airlines had published (local) > numbers in most cities they served, and often in surrounding cities, > connecting by FX lines to their call centers. If you called the > listed number for the airline, you reached the call center, not the > local ticket office. The 800 number just made the call center > available from everywhere in the country, not just in places where > they had FXs. (It also was usually cheaper from a hotel.)

I used to keep a Holiday Inn hotel directory from the late '70s or early '80s. It had a state listing with about 5-7 800 numbers divided among the various states. This is when 800 number pricing was based on bands 1-5. 1 was neighboring states and cheapest, 5 covered nationwide. Holiday at that time had 3-4 call centers around the country, and was trying to optimize rates by buying 3-5 band 2-3 800 numbers.

Another company where I worked had dialing codes for Band 2 and Band 5 WATS outgoing. We were told, if dialing a Band 2 location to WAIT for the line to become available, not to use the Band 5 WATS unless it was really important.

Gee, how things have changed now with distance independent pricing and

5c calls to the UK.

Jim Burks

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Jim Burks
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