Area code 700 of the North American Numbering Plan is reserved for carrier-specific number assignments to special services or destinations. It was introduced in 1983 in anticipation of the introduction of long-distance competition in the United States. The area code was intended for assignment by interexchange carriers to implement new services rapidly. The destinations of numbers in this numbering plan area are exclusive to each carrier. A local exchange carrier routes calls to 700-numbers to the presubscribed interexchange carrier, unless the caller overrides presubscription by prefixing the destination telephone number with a carrier identification. Almost all of the early 700-offerings have ceased, because of a combination of confusion, blocking of calls to them by many businesses, and many alternative services. The number 700-555-4141 was intended for service provider identification by all carriers who implemented the area code. In 1992, AT&T introduced a 700-number service branded as AT&T EasyReach 700. It provided a service for subscribers to forward calls placed to a personal 700-number to any domestic telephone number. Either the caller or the subscriber could be set up to pay for the incoming calls. If the call originated from a telephone not pre-subscribed to AT&T as its interexchange carrier, the caller was required to dial 10-ATT prior to dialing the 700-number. Some carriers have used area code 700 to offer carrier network services. For example, Vonage has provided weather information with WEATHER. Within North America, area code 700 has become the de facto area code in software-defined voice networks. In many cases, the area code is used when large organizations interconnect multiple sites or agencies, organizations, or jurisdictions under a common numbering plan. For example, Walmart uses area code 700 to provide a "store support hotline" on its internal store phone network. It provides a common area code when integrating voice-over-IP networks. AT&T and other providers offer managed VoIP services that route all customer calls over the carrier network. Many VoIP SDN services use area code 700 to denote VoIP calls requiring software-defined network routing.
