Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS) was a flat-rate long-distance service for customer dial-type telecommunications in the service areas of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP).
The service was between a given customer phone (also known as a "station") and stations within specified geographic rate areas, employing a single telephone line between the customer location and the serving central office. Each access line could be arranged for outward (OUT-WATS) or inward (IN-WATS) service, or both.[1]
WATS was introduced by the Bell System in 1961 as a long-distance flat-rate plan by which a business could obtain a special line with an included number of hours ('measured time' or 'full-time') of long-distance calling to a specified area.[2][3] These lines were most often connected to private branch exchanges in large businesses. WATS lines were the basis for the first direct-dial toll-free 1-800-numbers (intrastate in 1966,[4] interstate in 1967); by 1976, WATS brought AT&T Corporation a billion dollars in annual revenue ($5.35 billion in 2023 dollars)
For outbound calls, the 1984 AT&T divestiture brought multiple competitors offering similar services using standard business telephone lines; the special WATS line was ultimately supplanted by other flat-rate offerings. The requirement that an inbound toll-free number terminate at a special WATS line or fixed-rate service was also rendered obsolete by the 1980s due to intelligent network capability and technological improvement in the 800-service. A toll-free number may now terminate at a T-carrier line, at any standard local telephone number or at one of multiple destinations based on time of day, call origin, cost or other factors.
^ This article incorporates public domain material from Federal Standard 1037C. General Services Administration. Archived from the original on 2022-01-22.
^AT&T (1974) Events in Telephone History
^Alan Stone (Jan 1, 1997). How America Got On-line: Politics, Markets, and the Revolution in Telecommunications. M.E. Sharpe. p. 70. Retrieved 2013-10-31.
^"What's InWATS?". Traverse City Record-Eagle (advertisement). Traverse City, Michigan. April 13, 1966. p. 28. What's INWATS? An easier way for out-of-town customers to place their business with you! INWATS stands for Inward Wide Area Telephone Service. It lets selected customers call your company Long Distance with no cost to them. INWATS provides you with incoming telephone service from areas which you have selected. It automatically reverses the Long Distance charges so that you, instead of your customer, pay the toll. New, advanced telephone switching equipment makes sure only calls from these preselected areas are accepted toll-free. This service will increase the incentive of your present customers to do more business with you, and will help attract new customers, too. For details about how INWATS can serve you, call the Michigan Bell Business Office and ask for a Communications Consultant. Michigan Bell - Part of the Nationwide Bell System
and 25 Related for: Wide Area Telephone Service information
WideAreaTelephoneService (WATS) was a flat-rate long-distance service for customer dial-type telecommunications in the serviceareas of the North American...
The original North American area codes were established by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) in 1947, after the demonstration of regional...
Area Transit System, a transit agency serving Warrick County, Indiana WideAreaTelephoneService, a phone service for U.S. telecommunications Wide Area...
Trap and trace TWX Vertical service code Voicemail Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Western Union WideAreaTelephoneService (WATS) WATS line Wireless...
disorder to place calls to standard telephone users via a keyboard or assistive device. Originally, relay services were designed to be connected through...
A widearea network (WAN) is a telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area. Widearea networks are often established with leased...
short-form as NPA code or simply area code. The area code is prefixed to each telephone number issued in its servicearea. Other national telecommunication...
codes have been rationalised into widerarea codes. Such was the demand for lines in London that the city's telephonearea was first split into two separate...
Area codes 213 and 323 are telephonearea codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of California. They are assigned in an...
Area codes 714 and 657 are telephonearea codes in the North American Numbering Plan for the southern part of the U.S. state of California. The numbering...
Plan area codes North American Numbering Plan Mabbs, Ralph (Winter 1947–1948). "Nation-Wide Operator Toll Dialing—the Coming Way". Bell Telephone Magazine...
initial zero). Regions with shorter area codes, typically large cities, permit the allocation of more telephone numbers as the local number part has...
Area code 412 is a telephonearea code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The numbering plan area (NPA)...
area, the area code is not needed, save for a handful of areas that do require this. When calling from a mobile telephone or through a VoIP service,...
Area codes 408 and 669 are telephonearea codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) in the U.S. state of California. The numbering plan area comprises...
Area codes 415 and 628 are telephonearea codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the city of San Francisco and its northern suburbs in...
wireless services within a region, allowing users to switch to mobile service while keeping their telephone number. The initial plan for area code overlays...
Wireless widearea network (WWAN), is a form of wireless network. The larger size of a widearea network compared to a local area network requires differences...
403 in the first continent-widetelephone numbering plan by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T). When service became available from local...
Area codes 909 and 840 are telephonearea codes in the North American Numbering Plan for the far-eastern part of Los Angeles County and southwestern San...
Area code 951 is a telephonearea code in the North American Numbering Plan for western Riverside County in the southern part of the U.S. state of California...
Area codes 503 and 971 are telephonearea codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northwestern region of the U.S. state of Oregon. The...
Area codes 516 and 363 are telephone overlay area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of New York. The numbering plan...
02, later 021 telephone line service (possibly telephoneservice, if bought or rented from the telephone company) 023 elevators service (only in Bucharest)...
Area code 831 is a telephonearea code in the North American Numbering Plan for a small region of the U.S. state of California. The numbering plan area...
Global Information
This article incorporates public domain material from Federal Standard 1037C. General Services Administration. Archived from the original on 2022-01-22.
