RespOrg

In the North American Numbering Plan, a RespOrg (a contraction for responsible organization) is a company which maintains the registration for individual toll-free telephone numbers in the distributed Service Management System/800 database. Their function in North American telephony is analogous to that of an individual registrar in the Internet's Domain Name System.

RespOrgs were established in 1993 as part of a Federal Communications Commission order instituting toll-free number portability. A RespOrg (pronounced as though it were a single word, something like "ressborg") can be a long distance company, reseller, end user or an independent that offers an outsourced service.

Theory of operation

The initial implementation of toll-free calling was primitive. In the 1950s, a collect call or a call to a Zenith number had to be completed manually by a telephone operator; by 1967, a direct-dial +1-800 number could be provided using Wide Area Telephone Service, but each prefix was tied to a specific geographic destination and each number brought in on special fixed-rate trunks which were priced beyond the reach of most small businesses. There was no means to select between rival carriers and little room for vanity numbering; a subscriber would need three separate numbers to be reachable from Canada, US interstate and US intrastate.