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A teledotcom is a domain name that not only spells a memorable word but also has a matching toll-free telephone number. This means the word that spells something will have a toll-free prefix and a top level domain extension after it. A teledotcom can be accessible by either phone or internet address.
Most owners of a toll-free number that spells something (see Phoneword ), will also try to register the matching domain name and therefore create a teledotcom; a valuable asset should they wish to sell it. It is significantly more difficult for an owner of a valuable domain names, because the matching toll-free numbers are much rarer. As a consequence of the difficulties in obtaining the domain name and the matching toll-free telephone number, the number of teledotcoms is quite low.
An example teledotcom is 1-800-Flowers.com. Customers can either visit the website or telephone 1-800-FLOWERS (1-800-356-9377). Others examples are 1-800-Mattress.com and 1-800 Contacts.com. To extend their marketing reach, these companies will also advertise on television across the United States.
Buyer Jim McCann stated that 1-800-flowers purchased the toll free number from a flower company that was seven million dollars in debt. [1] The toll-free numbers are considered so valuable to the company that the company now owns the same number under the 888, and 877 prefix. When the 866 toll free prefix was launched, competition for the flowers number was stiff, with 1-800-flowers eventually losing to a rival company.[ citation needed ]
Unlike domain names where one person can own eLoans, and another can own eLoan and all can be allowed to use the names as they are considered fair use, toll-free numbers that are first to market and part of a brand, are usually protected. For example, when a New York-based business tried to set up 1-718-Mattress, it was forced to relinquish the use of the number as it confused people by too closely copying the brand of 1-800-Mattress.[ citation needed ]
All companies do not use their web domain names as their brand. Not every company would name themselves after the domain they acquire as they often take a similar but not exact name.
However, when a domain name or telephone number spell a valued term, the company will not only use the Toll free, Domain or combination Teledotcom as a brand, they will sometimes even change a long-standing company name to match it. This has happened with lenders for instance, Refinance.com now has that as their name when previously they were another company prior to acquiring the valuable domain name worth seven figures.
Using a toll free or teledotcom as a brand is common when they spell a frequently used or understood term.
When a company acquires a similar area code to a predecessor such as 1866flowers, it should not name itself as a company, 1866flowers.com etc. It can however fully utilize and publish the number and its spelling for easy remembering for its customers as long as it makes clear that it is part of separate company. The 1-800-Flowers company cannot prohibit the 1866Flowers phone number from use or marketing of the easily remembered phone number when used in conjunction with a distinguishable brand name.
The mistake made by 1-718-Mattress is they did not distinguish themselves as a company with another name. Had they been Neighborhood Mattress Inc., with 718-Mattress published alongside, then 1-800 Mattress could not have had a claim that 1-718 was using a confusingly similar name. The use of a phone number and its spelling is a right for any holder of a toll free or other prefix. Telephone numbers are part of a public trust and must be fairly available to anyone on an equal basis. Responsible Organizations (RespOrgs) must honor the rules that distribute phone numbers fairly according to law.
Consumers enjoy the easy access to services and goods that can be found by simply typing in the word on the keyboard such as flowers, or by simply dialing it.
1-800-Mattress is one such example. Consumers can order mattresses by calling or visiting on the web. Even with the 1-800-Mattress.com being a large purchase for the company, the convenience of telephone ordering from a toll free number that also spells the domain generally will increase business.
An automatic number announcement circuit (ANAC) is a component of a central office of a telephone company that provides a service to installation and service technicians to determine the telephone number of a line. The facility has a telephone number that may be called to listen to an automatic announcement that includes the caller's telephone number.
The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan for World Zone 1, which comprises twenty-five distinct regions in twenty countries primarily in North America, including the Caribbean. Some North American countries, most notably Mexico, do not participate in the NANP.
Premium-rate telephone numbers are telephone numbers for telephone calls during which certain services are provided, and for which prices higher than normal are charged. Unlike a normal call, part of the call charge is paid to the service provider, thus enabling businesses to be funded via the calls. While the billing is different, calls are usually routed the same way they are for a toll-free telephone number, being anywhere despite the area code used. These telephone numbers are usually allocated from a national telephone numbering plan in such a way that they are easily distinguished from other numbers. Telephone companies typically offer blocking services to allow telephone customers to prevent access to these number ranges from their telephones. In some jurisdictions, telephone companies are required by law to offer such blocking.
A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls instead of incurring charges to the originating telephone subscriber. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge.
The telephone number prefix 555 is a central office code in the North American Numbering Plan, used as the leading part of a group of 10,000 telephone numbers, 555-XXXX, in each numbering plan area (NPA)(area code). It has traditionally been used only for the provision of directory assistance, when dialing -555-1212.
A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, reachable by a system of destination code routing. Telephone numbering plans are defined in each of administrative regions of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and they are also present in private telephone networks. For public number systems, geographic location plays a role in the sequence of numbers assigned to each telephone subscriber.
In Argentina, area codes are two, three, or four digits long. Local customer numbers are six to eight figures long. The total number of digits is ten, for example, phone number (11) 1234-5678 for Buenos Aires is made up of a 2-digit area code number and an 8-digit subscriber's number, while (383) 123-4567 would be an example of a Catamarca number.
Telephone numbers in Singapore, also known as the National Numbering Plan, are regulated by the Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA). Due to the small geographical size of Singapore, there are no area or trunk codes; all numbers belong to one numbering area, and thus come in the same 8-digit format. Numbers are categorised based on the first digit, thus providing ten possible categories, of which six are currently in use and the remaining four reserved for future usage.
The area code 246 in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a composite part of the telephone numbering plan for Barbados. It is regulated by the government's Telecommunications Unit, which holds responsibility for telecommunications. The number 246 spells BIM, a nickname for the island.
The dialling plan for mobile networks and new landline operators is closed; all subscriber numbers must be dialled in full. For landline numbers starting with 02, the dialling plan used to be open; the trunk digit and area code could be omitted if the caller was in the same area code as the callee. However, starting May 3, 2008, all landline numbers must be dialled in full.
Phonewords are mnemonic phrases represented as alphanumeric equivalents of a telephone number. In many countries, the digits on the telephone keypad also have letters assigned. By replacing the digits of a telephone number with the corresponding letters, it is sometimes possible to form a whole or partial word, an acronym, abbreviation, or some other alphanumeric combination.
A vanity number is a local or toll-free telephone number for which a subscriber requests an easily remembered sequence of numbers for marketing purposes.
In the North American Numbering Plan, a RespOrg is a company that maintains the registration for individual toll-free telephone numbers in the distributed Service Management System/800 database. Their function in North American telephony is analogous to that of an individual registrar in the Internet's Domain Name System.
Telephone numbers in Italy are managed by the Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM), a national regulatory authority for the communication industry located in Rome.
Telephone numbers in Canada follow the fixed-length Bell System format, consisting of the country code +1, followed by a three-digit area code, a three-digit central office code and a four-digit station code. This is represented as 1 NPA NXX XXXX, in which the country code is "1".
The national conventions for writing telephone numbers vary by country. While international standards exist in the form of the International Telecommunication Union sector ITU-T issued recommendation E.123, national telephone numbering plans define the format and length of telephone numbers assigned to telephones.
A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a fixed-line telephone subscriber station connected to a telephone line or to a wireless electronic telephony device, such as a radio telephone or a mobile telephone, or to other devices for data transmission via the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or other public and private networks.
A misdialed call or wrong number is a telephone call to an incorrect telephone number. This may occur because the number has been physically misdialled, the number is simply incorrect, or because the area code or ownership of the number has changed. In North America, toll-free numbers are a frequent source of wrong numbers because they often have a history of prior ownership. In the United Kingdom, many misdialled calls have been due to public confusion over the dialing codes for some areas.
In the United States of America, Canada, and other countries participating in the North American Numbering Plan, a toll-free telephone number has one of the area codes 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, and 888.
Dial-A-Mattress Franchise Corp. v. Page, 880 F.2d 675, is a case that was tried in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which dealt with the issue of whether a plaintiff's telephone number, which translates into a generic term, is entitled to judicial protection when a second comer tries to use a confusingly similar number.