Catalog Age reveals -- We're running out of 800 numbers.

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 1995--With marketers gobbling up toll-free 800 numbers at the rate of 60,000 a week, the entire available supply of 7.6 million will run out in about seven months, Catalog Age reports in its April issue.

"The toll-free calling market is about to turn upside down, causing ripples that will be felt by virtually every cataloger," the magazine says. "And right now, few mailers even know about it."

Says Judith Oppenheimer, president of consulting firm Interactive CallBrand, "I have grave concerns for the direct marketing industry. The access mode between (catalogers) and customers is at risk."

The telecommunication industry, anticipating the crisis, has come up with an unprecedented plan to replenish the toll-free number supply with a new 888 prefix -- but there are problems.

First, the plan won't be ready till next April. Second, it won't be able to protect or reserve any seven-digit numbers already in use with an 800 prefix. This means, for example, that a well-known cataloger like 800-Flowers would not have exclusive right to 888-Flowers, since any competitor could just as easily get the number.

This could not only cause customer confusion about which company is being called, Oppenheimer warns, but could lead to misdirected orders and, in the case of vanity numbers, to trademark and brand confusion.

Ironically, this lack of protection has some experts predicting a furious rush to grab 888 numbers.

"If companies scramble right out of the gate to get the 888 version of their 800 number, we'll quickly see the same (shortage) we have with 800," says Jeffrey Kagan, president of Tele Choice Consulting, which advises businesses on long-distance issues.

During the six-month gap between the depletion of the 800 numbers and the advent of the 888 numbers, the only source for the former will be the largest long-distance carriers, which have been stockpiling them as they become available, says Dennis Byrne, co-chairman of the Industry Numbering Committee and executive director of the U.S. Telephone Association.

Byrne notes that 888 numbers will initially not be portable from one carrier to another as 800 numbers have been since May 1, 1993. The numbering committee of 70 U.S. telecommunications-industry representatives approved the 888 plan at a meeting in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, March 3.

As if the looming 800 famine were not troublesome enough, there's also the vexing proposal by a United Nations agency to create a world-wide toll-free long-distance calling service that would further muddy the waters.

Few catalogers have heard of 888 or international freephone service, but those that have are concerned. "Whenever someone mentions phones and numbers, we shake a little," says Scott Bell, merchandise director for sailboat cataloger The WoodenBoat.

Last year, The WoodenBoat received more than 30,000 misdialed calls -- all of which it had to pay for -- because its order number closely resembled MCI's 800-collect number. The cataloger had to change toll-free numbers and get AT&T to install a call prompter guiding callers to either WoodenBoat or MCI.

With the advent of 888 toll-free calling and universal international freephone service, catalogers throughout the U.S. will find themselves in similar situations, Oppenheimer fears. "At the risk of sounding extreme," she says, "it's quite catastrophic."

Catalog Age is published by Cowles Business Media, which is part of Cowles Media Company, a newspaper, magazine and information-services company based in Minneapolis.

CONTACT: Jacobson, Altman Associates

Leon Jacobson or Phyllis Stevens, 212/697-2620