888 Phone Industry Conversion Plan Is Set

The supply of toll-free numbers is about to get tighter. Beginning today, phone companies and other providers of toll-free numbers will be allowed to assign fewer digits to companies and consumers. The aim: preventing 800 and 888 numbers from being used up before the launch of an 877 code in April. The Federal Communications Commission earlier this week approved the plan after the toll-free industry warned that Americans’ appetite for 800 and 888 numbers was so big that the remaining pool needed conserving. The FCC went a step further, warning it would install a stricter plan if toll-free numbers are snapped up at a rate faster than 89,000 numbers a week. That’s about 30,000 a week higher than the current average, which has been rising.