Zenith number

Last updated
Zenith telephone number listing in a 1938 Southern California telephone directory Zenith telephone number listing 1938-07 SoCalTelCo Z-7121.png
Zenith telephone number listing in a 1938 Southern California telephone directory

A Zenith number was a telephone service in the United States that allowed a calling party to call the service subscriber at no charge by requesting the name Zenith and the number from a switchboard operator. The service preceded the system of toll-free telephone numbers with area code 800 in the United States. Some areas used the names "Enterprise" or "WX" number. [2]

Introduced in the 1930s, a Zenith number was listed in local directories in each community from which a business desired to receive calls. [1] [3] In that era, direct-dial numbers were commonly published with telephone exchange names followed by digits, such as in the telephone number "PEnnsylvania 6-5000".

The letter Z appeared on many telephone dials from the early 1930s to the 1950s at the same position as the label Operator with the digit 0, indicating that the caller had to call the operator to place the call. The operator looked up the Zenith number to find the corresponding city and directory telephone number, and completed the call by charging it to the destination number.

Bell System telephone dial of 1953 with letter Z at the Operator-position with digit 0, a common feature since the 1930s. Bell System telephone dial with letter Z at the 0-position-1953-302-kbrose-20230603.jpg
Bell System telephone dial of 1953 with letter Z at the Operator-position with digit 0, a common feature since the 1930s.

For an organization expecting calls from a specific area but not very frequently, a Zenith number could provide savings over using foreign exchange (FX) service. For example, if a bus company had to provide a bus information number for callers in an area distant from its main office, and if a Zenith number cost $6 a month plus about $1.50 per call while an FX number cost $50 a month, then until the Zenith number regularly received at least 30 calls or more a month it would be cheaper than establishing foreign exchange service.

In the United States and Canada, usage of manual Zenith numbers diminished after the 1967 introduction of interstate direct-dial 800 area code InWATS toll-free service, and especially after 1982 when 800 calls no longer had to be placed via special fixed-rate trunks. A similar service in the United Kingdom, in which callers asked operators for "Freephone (name or number)", had no direct-dial counterpart until 1985.

As direct-dial toll-free service declined in cost, Zenith numbers nearly disappeared; telephone companies in most service areas are no longer assigning new Zenith numbers.

A few organizations have continued to keep Zenith numbers. For example, as of 2006, the California Highway Patrol continued to use its decades-old Zenith 1-2000, [4] On its website it advertises 1-800-TELL-CHP. [5]

Examples

Related Research Articles

Direct distance dialing (DDD) is a telecommunication service feature in North America by which a caller may, without operator assistance, call any other user outside the local calling area. Direct dialing by subscribers typically requires extra digits to be dialed as prefixes to the directory telephone number of the destination. International Direct Distance Dialing (IDDD) extends the system beyond the geographic boundaries of the North American Numbering 01734729082 Plan (NANP).

Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS) was a flat-rate long-distance service for customer dial-type telecommunications in the service areas of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North American Numbering Plan</span> Integrated telephone numbering plan of twenty North American countries

The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Zone 1 and has the telephone country code 1. Some North American countries, most notably Mexico, do not participate with the NANP.

Automatic number identification (ANI) is a feature of a telecommunications network for automatically determining the origination telephone number on toll calls for billing purposes. Automatic number identification was originally created by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) for long distance service in the Bell System, eliminating the need for telephone operators to manually record calls.

4-1-1 is a telephone number for local directory assistance in Canada and the United States. Until the early 1980s, 4-1-1 — and the related 1-1-3 number — were free to call in most states.

A toll-free telephone number or freephone number is a telephone number that is billed for all arriving calls. For the calling party, a call to a toll-free number from a landline is free of charge. A toll-free number is identified by a dialing prefix similar to an area code. The specific service access varies by country.

In telecommunications, directory assistance or directory inquiries is a phone service used to find out a specific telephone number and/or address of a residence, business, or government entity.

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 the administrative regions of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and in private telephone networks.

In telecommunications, a long-distance call (U.S.) or trunk call is a telephone call made to a location outside a defined local calling area. Long-distance calls are typically charged a higher billing rate than local calls. The term is not necessarily synonymous with placing calls to another telephone area code.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Area code 868</span> Trinidad & Tobagos telephone area code under the North American Numbering Plan

The area code 868 is assigned to Trinidad and Tobago, a member of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). The telephone numbering plan for the country is known as the National Numbering Plan. It is part of a system used for assigning telephone numbers in Trinidad and Tobago, and functions as a part of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP). It is regulated by the Telecommunications Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, which holds responsibility for telecommunications in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone numbers in the Republic of Ireland</span>

Numbers on the Irish telephone numbering plan are regulated and assigned to operators by ComReg.

Area code 246 is the telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for Barbados. The sequence 246 spells BIM on an alpha-numeric telephone keypad, a nickname for the island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone numbers in Romania</span>

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone numbers in New Zealand</span> New Zealand numbering plan

The New Zealand telephone numbering plan describes the allocation of telephone numbers in New Zealand and the Pitcairn Islands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoneword</span> Mnemonic phrases represented as alphanumeric equivalents of a telephone number

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.

Telephone numbers in Canada follow the fixed-length format of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) of a three-digit area code, a three-digit central office code, and a four-digit station or line code. This is represented as NPA NXX XXXX.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone number</span> Sequence of digits assigned to a telephone subscription

A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a landline 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone numbers in Belarus</span>

Belarus began using its own country code +375 in 1995, replacing the +7 international country code inherited from the Soviet Union. The local numbering plan was inherited from the Soviet Union and remains with few changes.

Toll-free telephone numbers in the North American Numbering Plan have the area code prefix 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877, and 888. Additionally, area codes 822, 880 through 887, and 889 are reserved for toll-free use in the future. 811 is excluded because it is a special dialing code in the group NXX for various other purposes.

In conventional landline telephony, a non-dialable toll point or toll station was a lone station or line serving a rural subscriber many miles from the nearest central office. As it had no home telephone exchange and therefore no local calling area, no customer could dial its number; all connections to it had to be obtained manually by the long distance operator.

References

  1. 1 2 "Telephone Directory–Canoga Park, Newhall, North Hollywood, Palmdale, Reseda and Van Nuys". Southern California Telephone Company. 1938-07-01. Retrieved 2023-06-03.
  2. ↑ History of Toll-Free Numbers, from bebusinessed.com
  3. ↑ Pacific Telephone (August 21, 1959). "Your special ZENITH number: ZENITH phone service gets you out-of-town customers without costly branch offices" (advertisement). The Spokesman-Review, Spokane WA. p. 7.
  4. 1 2 "Remembering Old Zenith Numbers". Archived from the original on 2006-09-10. Retrieved 2006-07-24.
  5. ↑ "Contacting the California Highway Patrol". Archived from the original on 2013-10-20. Retrieved 2013-12-18.
  6. ↑ "Friends newsletter May 2012" (PDF). Friends of The OPP Museum. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 November 2022.
  7. ↑ Zenith 50,000 - A call for crime prevention Archived 2014-06-30 at the Wayback Machine (archival video), Ministry of the Solicitor General, Ontario Provincial Police (1975), OPP Museum accession number 2012.20.16
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.