sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information WATS question

Hi again!

Have a strange question. I know what the term WATS line means (Wide Area Telephone Service). What I am curious about is (was) this different from what we now call "800" service (toll free)? I remember my grandfather many years ago in his mansion in Winston Salem had WATS service, and there was a large Bell System box on the backboard in the basement with what he told me was a "WATS line" unit. I remember his 1A2 system, and that was seperate (he called it the "telephone system"). Then he explained to me that the WATS system allowed his employees (and my mother) to call him from anywhere in the country without paying for the call. I thought that was cool (being six years old...)

Best,

Joe

Yes there were inbound and outbound WATS and they were equivalent to the 800 numbers of today.

What is an outbound WATS? How is it different from any other phone line that allows outgoing calls?

On a side note, I still see quite a few businesses advertising their WATS number. I've even seen it spelled "WATTS" in some cases.

Outbound was out calling only, no incoming calls.

The company I worked for in the early 80’s had in-state and out of state WATS lines.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to remember that you could select your outbound calling area(s) and place a certain number of outbound calls at no charge. If you exceeded the number of calls in your plan, you were billed for them.

You're not wrong, there were calling zones.

In our independent stepper, we actually had meters. They were elapsed time meters and somebody read the time each month for billing. We had both Ohio and USA WATS lines and they were different numbers. I remember when Jenne first went into business in 1984 or 1985, they still had an Ohio WATS and US WATS lines. IIRC 422-6190 and 91 were the different numbers.

Carl

Unlike most toll free numbers today that forward to a local line that can be "dedicated" or not, Wats lines were stand alone lines. Some did not allow local calling, some allowed local but billed as if it were long distance. AT&T started offering "Ready Line" 1-800 service back in the late eighties which eleminated the need for dedicated WATS service for inbound. I replaced a lot of those with ready lines, saved customers a ton of money.

I remember AT&T with kind thoughts regarding Ready Line! The company I worked for ordered lines and services of all types for our customers as part of our service. (Besides, that way we got what they needed, not what the business office 'Car-Loaded' them with) Any how I forgot to order a move of a customer's dedicated WATS line, which usually took 3 months or so of lead time! 1 week before the physical relocation of the company I realized the error in my plans. That's when my AT&T contact bailed me out AND saved the customer several dollars a month! I came out of that smelling like a rose!

Outbound WATS came in "Bands", band 5 was all the continental US, Band 1 was more localized ( out here it was NY, NJ, Conn, I think), and Bands 2-4 were everything in between. I seem to vaguely recall a Band 6 that covered Alaska and Hawaii and maybe even a Band 0, but I can't recall what it was for.

In bound Wats was an 800 number.

Wats was offered by ATT and later by MCI, Sprint and a number of other vendors. In the days before free LD it was crucial and "Least Cost Routing" programming (NARS & BARS for you Northern people) was where you separated the men from the sheep...... Or however that saying went. ;-)

Sam