Phoneword
Encyclopedia
Alphanumeric
Alphanumeric is a combination of alphabetic and numeric characters, and is used to describe the collection of Latin letters and Arabic digits or a text constructed from this collection. There are either 36 or 62 alphanumeric characters. The alphanumeric character set consists of the numbers 0 to...
equivalents of a telephone number
Telephone number
A telephone number or phone number is a sequence of digits used to call from one telephone line to another in a public switched telephone network. When telephone numbers were invented, they were short — as few as one, two or three digits — and were given orally to a switchboard operator...
. In many countries, there exist letters corresponding to each digit on a telephone keypad
Telephone keypad
A telephone keypad is a keypad that appears on a "Touch Tone" telephone. It was standardised when the dual-tone multi-frequency system in the new push-button telephone was introduced in the 1960s, which gradually replaced the rotary dial....
. The letters corresponding to a particular telephone number can form a word, a partial word, an acronym, abbreviation, or an alphanumeric combination; these are known as phonewords.
The main advantages of phonewords over standard phone numbers include increased memorability and increased response rates to advertising. They are easier to remember than numeric phone numbers, therefore when businesses use them as a direct response tool in their advertising (radio, television, print, outdoor, etc.) they are proven to increase response rates by 30-60%. Regular side by side testing of phonewords and phone numbers in TV and radio advertising in Australia has shown that phonewords generate up to twice as many calls as standard phone numbers.
A study conducted by Roy Morgan Research
Roy Morgan Research
Roy Morgan Research is an Australian market research company headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria; it was founded in 1941 by Roy Morgan ; its Executive Chairman today is his son, Gary Morgan....
in February 2006 indicated that 92% of Australians are aware of alphanumeric dialling.
Disadvantage of using phonewords for BlackBerry and other smartphones
In the age of advanced mobile devices, there is some disadvantage in using phonewords. BlackBerryBlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
and some other smartphones do not have the apportioned letters on the keys used for dialing, so one is unable to do alphabetic dialing without some other cross-reference to the actual phone number. This can be overcome by phonewords also being accompanied by the actual numeric phone number, allowing users of such smartphones to dial using the numeric phone number.
Vanity numbers in the United States
Phonewords have been widely used in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for more than thirty years.
800 is the most recognizable toll-free exchange — more so than 855, 866, 877 or 888. A toll-free vanity number or mnemonics is a 1-800 telephone number that is easy to remember because it spells something and means something, such as 1-800-FLOWERS or 1-800-BUSINESS. A vanity number, being a phoneword, is easier to remember than a numeric phone number such as 1-866-348-7934. Businesses use easily recognizable 1-800 vanity numbers as both a branding and a direct response tool in their advertising (radio, television, print, outdoor, etc.) since they are proven to increase response rates by 30-60%.
Vanity 800 numbers are also available with call tracking. The tracking of these direct-response tools allows businesses to determine where their incoming call traffic is coming from. Call tracking reports enable businesses owners and manager to build a database of leads, access demographic information on callers, examine a wide range of call data, better allocate personnel based on calling patterns, analyze ad campaign results, and export data into other programs. The reports also help to fine-tune advertising plans and media budgets by providing detailed information on specific media buys, such as radio, television, outdoor media, etc.
With the popularity of these numbers companies see value in linking the number to a web site of the same text, as in the case with THRIFTY which has the vanity number 1800-THRIFTY and the web site www.1800thrifty.com. This enables them to target phone and web users together. So like in Australia, companies paying many thousands of dollars, and in some cases paying a million dollars or more for the phoneword numbers, will be left with no choice but to pay the same kinds of amounts for the domains as well.
Phonewords in Australia
Phonewords were officially introduced into Australia following the release of the appropriate number ranges by the Australian Communications and Media AuthorityAustralian Communications and Media Authority
The Australian Communications and Media Authority is an Australian government statutory authority within the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy portfolio...
in August 2004. The ACMA markets the rights of use to the phonewords (also referred to as smartnumbers) via an online auction which is found at www.smartnumbers.com.au. The correct terminology is 'PHONEWORDS' as it is accepted by Australian Government (as recorded in the Official HANSARD published by the Australian Government), IP Australia and Telstra. Incorrect terminology is often can be seen as 'Phone Words'.
Some phonewords have sold for as much as AUD $1 million with 13TAXI raising AUD $1,005,000; 1300 TICKETS AUD $300,000; 1300 FLOWERS AUD $152,500; 1800 TICKETS AUD $100,000; 13ROSE $92,500.
The types of numbers that are most commonly used include those beginning with the prefixes '1300', and '1800', which are 10 digits in length, and numbers beginning with '13', which are six digits in length.
The differences between the prefixes are the length of the number (6 or 10 digits), the license cost to use them each year (approximately AUD$1 for 1800 and 1300, AUD$10,000 for 13 numbers) and the call cost model. 1300 numbers and 13 numbers share call costs between the caller and call recipient, whereas the 1800 model offers a national free call to the caller, with total costs of the call borne by the recipient.
Phonewords in Japan
Phones can also be used to spell out words in the Japanese writing systemJapanese writing system
The modern Japanese writing system uses three main scripts:*Kanji, adopted Chinese characters*Kana, a pair of syllabaries , consisting of:...
. Most services are used by commercial establishments as an attempt to make their numbers easier to remember. Toll free numbers in Japan are prefixed with 0120. Examples include 0120-363963, where the numbers 3963 can also be read as サンキューローソン (sankyuu roosan, "Thank you, Lawson"), and 0120-026-999 in which 026-999 can be read as オフロでキュッキュッキュッ (ofuro de kyukkyukkyu), which literally means "bath - quick, quick, quick".
Generating phonewords
Although businesses typically choose phone numbers so as to correspond to particular phonewords, it is also possible to go in the other direction, and generate phonewords corresponding to given numbers. Software tools to do this include DialABC, Phonespell, Phonetic, Phoneword, spellMyNumber and VanityPhoneNumbers.See also
- E.161E.161E.161 is an ITU-T recommendation that defines the assignment of the basic 26 Latin letters to the 12-key telephone keypad. Uses for this mapping include:* Multi-tap and predictive text systems* Forming phonewords from telephone numbers...
- TeledotcomTeledotcomA teledotcom is a domain name that not only spells a memorable word but also has a matching toll-free telephone number. This means the word that spells something will have a toll-free prefix and a top level domain extension after it...
- Telephone exchange namesTelephone exchange namesDuring the early years of telephone service, communities that required more than 10,000 telephone numbers, whether dial service was available or not, utilized exchange names to distinguish identical numerics for different customers....
- Telephone numbering planTelephone numbering planA telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunications to allocate telephone numbers to subscribers and to route telephone calls in a telephone network. A closed numbering plan, such as found in North America, imposes a fixed total length to numbers...
- Telephone numberTelephone numberA telephone number or phone number is a sequence of digits used to call from one telephone line to another in a public switched telephone network. When telephone numbers were invented, they were short — as few as one, two or three digits — and were given orally to a switchboard operator...
- Toll-free telephone numberToll-free telephone numberA toll-free, Freecall, Freephone, 800, 0800 or 1-800 number is a special telephone number which is free to the calling party, and instead the telephone carrier charges the called party the cost of the call...
- Vanity plateVanity plateA vanity plate or personalized plate , prestige plate, private number plate, or personalised registration or custom plate or personalised plate is a special type of vehicle registration plate on an automobile or other vehicle...