AT&T; Weighs New Toll-Free Number

AT&T; Corp. said it plans to introduce a new toll-free prefix in one year to meet a growing demand for toll-free services. A year ago, AT&T; created an 888 toll-free code to supplement a dwindling supply of 800 numbers. The company said those new numbers are being consumed so quickly that it is working to create another pool of available numbers using an 877 code. “Of 7.78 million available combinations, 7.71 million, or 99.9%, are working, reserved or otherwise taken from the pool of available numbers,” AT&T; said of the original batch of 800 numbers. The next code, 877, is scheduled to be operational by April 4, 1998.