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''411'' is a
telephone number A telephone number is the address of a Telecommunications, telecommunication endpoint, such as a telephone, in a telephone network, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN). A telephone number typically consists of a Number, sequ ...
for local
directory assistance 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. Technology Directory assistance systems incorporate ...
in
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
and the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
. Until the early 1980s, ''411'' – and the related ''113'' number – were free to call in most jurisdictions. In the United States, the service is commonly known as "information", although its official name is "directory assistance".


History

The ''411'' number has been in use since at least 1930 in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
,
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
, and other large cities where panel and crossbar switching equipment installed by the
Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the AT&T Corporation, American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America fo ...
was prevalent. However, in smaller Bell System cities as well as almost all areas served by
GTE GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation (1955–1982), was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System. The company operated from 1926, with roots tracing furth ...
and other companies where step-by-step equipment was the norm such as
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, ''113'' was used until at least the 1960s, and in some cases (the
Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...
, for example) until the mid-1980s. In Canada and the United States, directory assistance was historically a local function, and most companies updated listings at their directory assistance centers frequently, sometimes daily. When long-distance numbers were needed, prior to the full introduction of direct-dialed long-distance service, callers would call either ''411'' or ''0'' ( Operator) and request a free long-distance connection to the directory assistance center in the distant city. In 1962, direct-dialed long-distance directory assistance became available. The number in cities with panel and crossbar switching equipment was '' rea code555-1212'', whereas in cities with step-by-step equipment the number was ''1-555-1212'' (or ''112-555-1212'') for numbers not local but in the same area code and ''1- rea code555-1212'' (or ''112- rea code555-1212'') for numbers in other area codes. In some area codes, the directory assistance center was able to serve the entire area code, but in many, the operator in the principal city of the area code dialed would connect the caller onward to a more local directory assistance center for the most up-to-date information. After the introduction of local exchange competition, most telephone companies outsourced directory assistance service to nationwide call centers. This has blurred the distinction between ''411'' and ''555-1212''. For regulatory reasons, where telephone service is provided by traditional local-exchange carriers, the local carrier will determine how to handle 411, the chosen local toll (intra-
LATA Latha (Hindi: लता, Kannada: ಲತಾ) is a Hindu Indian female given name, which means "creeper" and "Durga". Latha may refer to: Notable people named Lata *Lata Mangeshkar (1929–2022), Indian singer. *Lata Bhatt (born 1954), Indian sin ...
) carrier will determine how to handle ''555-1212'' calls for area codes within the LATA, and the chosen long-distance carrier for inter-LATA) calls will determine how to handle 'other-area-code-555-1212''calls. For service provided by cellular and
VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), also known as IP telephony, is a set of technologies used primarily for voice communication sessions over Internet Protocol (IP) networks, such as the Internet. VoIP enables voice calls to be transmitted as ...
carriers where the customer does not have a choice of local toll or long-distance carriers, all calls may be handled the same way. In North America, all areas formerly using ''113'' have been converted to using ''411'', and ''11x'' is now reserved for vertical service codes. Outside North America, "11x" numbers are still in use, for these and other services. In most European countries, ''11x'' numbers are related to emergency services and ''112'' is the
emergency telephone number An emergency telephone number is a number that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. The emergency number differs from country to country; it is typically a three-digit number so that it can be easily remembered and ...
in the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
as well as some other European and non-European countries.


The relationship between ''411'', ''113'', and long-distance dialing

Direct-distance dialing (DDD) was first introduced in areas with common-control switching ( panel and crossbar) in the 1950s. These areas had used ''411'' for directory assistance, and because of the ability of common-control switching to analyze the initial digits of a number in a " sender" before routing the call, these areas did not require the dialing of an initial ''1'' to initiate a long-distance call. There was no ambiguity, because the initial assignment of
area code 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, rea ...
s always used either a ''0'' or a ''1'' as the second digit, and the second digit of local numbers was never a ''0'' or a ''1'' because of the use of two-letter plus 5-digit local numbering, with the letters only on digits 2–9 of the dial. Areas with step-by-step equipment processed the call one digit at a time as dialed by the caller, and thus needed a common prefix to distinguish long-distance dialing from local calls. The Bell System design choice was ''1'', but since ''113'' was in use for directory assistance, along with other ''11x'' codes ("Repair" was ''114'')., changes had to be made in the step-by-step areas. Initially, ''112'' was used temporarily as the prefix in most of these areas. To simplify long-distance calling, it was desirable to change this to a ''1''. Some areas converted immediately to ''411'' for directory assistance and ''611'' for repair. Other areas retained ''113'' by installing what were known as "double-header" trunks, which actually connected the call to the long-distance equipment and then "snatched it back" if the second digit was also a ''1''. The conversion proceeded as follows in Springfield, Massachusetts:


Directory assistance data

The services of
directory assistance 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. Technology Directory assistance systems incorporate ...
queries is often outsourced to a
call center A call centre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American English, American spelling; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences) is a managed capability th ...
which specializes in the task. Historically, when a single carrier provided most of the telephone services for a region, the data used to satisfy the search could exclusively come for that carrier's subscriber rolls. Today, when the market is fragmented amongst many carriers, the data must be aggregated by a data aggregator specializing in directory listings. The data aggregator distributes the data to the ''411'' services either on a "live" basis, serving each query on-demand, or by periodically transferring large swaths of listings to the call center's systems for local searching. The data aggregator collects the data from the rolls of many telecommunication carriers. Some carriers such as
Vonage Vonage Holdings Corp. (, or simply Vonage) is an American cloud communications provider operating as a subsidiary of Ericsson. Headquartered in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, the organization was founded in 1998 as Min-X as a provider of resident ...
do not send their customer rolls to the aggregator. Their customers can get their listings in the directory assistance database using a free service such a
ListYourself.net


Landline telephone directory assistance

''411'' landline service has been historically provided by local telephone companies, including those of the former
Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the AT&T Corporation, American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America fo ...
or subsequent Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs). Telephone carriers since that time may provide the ''411'' calls to the customer free of charge. Since the 1984 Bell System divestiture, the
RBOC A Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC) was a corporate entity created as result of the antitrust lawsuit by the United States Department of Justice against the Western Electric Company and American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1 ...
s in the United States have priced ''411'' use higher to an average of US$1.25 per call, compared to $0.50 CAD in most of Canada, providing opportunities for competing services in the United States, such as ad-sponsored '' 1-800-FREE-411''.


Wireless telephone directory listings

In addition to the local and long-distance directory services, there is also a "Wireless ''411'' Service". As specified by the industry, the service will give wireless subscribers the choice of including their wireless phone numbers in directory assistance services. Consumers can opt in to listing their name and cellphone number with directory assistance services, such as ''411''. The information is currently not published in print or online directories. Additionally, the information is not added to, or otherwise shared with, marketing lists or telemarketing firms. The service will allow any
landline A landline is a physical telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber from the subscriber's premises to the network, allowing multiple phones to operate simultaneously on the same phone number. It is also referred to as plain old ...
or wireless phone user to call ''411'' and be connected to the wireless listing of a subscriber who has chosen to participate in the service. Carriers who make up the industry LLC creating the service include
Alltel Alltel was a landline, wireless service provider, wireless and general Telephone company, telecommunications services provider, primarily based in the United States. Before its wireless division was acquired by Verizon Wireless and AT&T, Alltel pr ...
(now absorbed by Verizon Wireless),
AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...
,
T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...
, and
Sprint Nextel Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before being Merger of Sprint Corporation and T-Mobile US, acquired by T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 5 ...
(now absorbed by T-Mobile).


Withdrawal of ''411'' services

In the United States cellular market, AT&T announced its withdrawal of ''411'' service for its wireless phone customers, effective November 1, 2022. AT&T also announced it would discontinue landline ''411'' services in 21 states starting January 1, 2023.


See also

* 911 (emergency telephone number) * 800-The-Info * Bing 411 * GOOG-411 *
Speech recognition Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers. It is also ...
*
Tellme Networks Tellme Networks, Inc. was an American company founded in 1999 by Mike McCue and Angus Davis, which specialized in telephone-based applications. Its headquarters were in Mountain View, California. Tellme Networks was acquired by Microsoft on Mar ...
* N11 Code


References


Further reading


2006 survey from Tellme Networks, Inc. about 411 usage

The Kelsey Group report on wireless voice search
(10/2006) {{N11_codes Directory assistance services Three-digit telephone numbers