The 800-number, which has been around since 1967 is doomed. Its fate will be the same as pay phones and milkmen. This would be very bad news for phone companies, which rake in $12 billion a year from toll-free numbers.

Why?

Just about everyone who has a cellphone has a flat rate package for local and long-distance calls. In other words, when you use your cellphone, there’s really no difference in your cost whether you call a company’s toll-free 800-number or a toll number. Both calls would cost you essentially nothing, but if you call the company’s 800-number, the call costs the company at least a few cents a minute. Those calls add up to millions of dollars a year for many companies.

Most home phone plans now bundle local and long-distance calling into a flat rate — so calling an 800-number from a home phone isn’t any more free than calling a regular number.

Why would a company spend all that money it didn’t have to spend?

[Read](http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/kevinmaney/2006-11-07-800-cellphones_x.htm “Read the Story”) (USA Today)