It was introduced in 1983 for providing customized services in anticipation of the introduction of long-distance competition in the United States, but this usage has been deprecated.
The number (700) 555-4141 was established to allow subscribers to identify their long-distance service providers (interexchange carriers) after the breakup.
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.
[citation needed] It provides a common area code when integrating voice-over-IP (VoIP) networks.
[7][8] AT&T and other providers offer managed VoIP services that route all customer calls (internal and external) over the carrier network.