<P> For small regional businesses who received few long - distance calls, the original InWATS was prohibitively expensive . As a fixed - rate bulk service requiring special trunks, it was suited only to large volume users . </P> <P> Modern toll - free service became possible when telephone companies replaced their electro - mechanical switching systems with computerized switching systems . This allowed toll - free calls to be routed based on instructions located in central databases . </P> <P> In the United States, AT&T engineer Roy P. Weber from Bridgewater, New Jersey patented a' Data Base Communication Call Processing Method' which was deployed by AT&T in 1982 . The called number was an index into a database, allowing a' Toll - Free Call' or' 800 Call' to be directed anywhere . This feature and other advances that made it possible were what led to AT&T marketing analyst Dodge Cepeda from Bedminster, New Jersey to propose the introduction of providing 800 Toll - Free Service to small and medium size business customers on a nationwide basis . Once this service was implemented, it became possible for the very smallest of business operations to have potential customers contact them free of charge at a time when long distance calling was expensive . Until this time, 800 Service was only available to major Fortune 500 companies . </P> <P> In the United Kingdom, BT introduced "Linkline" on 12 November 1985 . No more need to manually ring the operator, two new prefixes 0800 (an automated toll - free service which became "Freefone") and 0345 (a shared - cost service marketed as "Lo - Call" because initially its rates resembled those of local calls) could be reached by direct dial . Cable and Wireless used 0500 and 0645, in much the same way, just a few years later . </P>

Dialing a us 1-800 number from the uk