A vertical service code (VSC) is a sequence of digits and the signals

star A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...

(*) and number sign (#) dialed on a

telephone keypad A telephone keypad is a keypad installed on a push-button telephone or similar telecommunication device for dialing a telephone number. It was standardized when the dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) system was developed in the Bell Syste ...

rotary dial A rotary dial is a component of a telephone or a telephone switchboard that implements a signaling technology in telecommunications known as pulse dialing. It is used when initiating a telephone call to transmit the destination telephone number ...

to enable or disable certain telephone service features. Some vertical service codes require dialing of a

telephone number A telephone number is a sequence of digits assigned to a landline telephone subscriber station connected to a telephone line or to a wireless electronic telephony device, such as a radio telephone or a mobile telephone, or to other devices f ...

after the code sequence. On a

touch tone Dual-tone multi-frequency signaling (DTMF) is a telecommunication signaling system using the voice-frequency band over telephone lines between telephone equipment and other communications devices and switching centers. DTMF was first developed ...

telephone, the codes are usually initiated with the star key, resulting in the commonly used name ''star codes''. On rotary dial telephones, the star is replaced by dialing ''11''. In

North American North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Ca ...

telephony Telephony ( ) is the field of technology involving the development, application, and deployment of telecommunication services for the purpose of electronic transmission of voice, fax, or data, between distant parties. The history of telephony is i ...

, VSCs were developed by AT&T Corp. as Custom Local Area Signaling Services (CLASS or LASS) codes in the 1960s and 70s. Their use became ubiquitous throughout the 1990s and eventually became a recognized standard. As ''CLASS'' was an AT&T trademark, the term ''vertical service code'' was adopted by the

North American Numbering Plan Administration The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Zone 1 and has the international calling ...

. The use of ''vertical'' is a somewhat dated reference to older switching methods and the fact that these services can only be accessed by a local telephone subscriber, going up (''vertically'') inside the local central office instead of out (''horizontally'') to another telephone company.

Feature definitions

North America & elsewhere

The following are the vertical service codes generally recommended by the

for use in the NANP territories. Not all of these services are available in all areas, and some are only available to

landline A landline (land line, land-line, main line, home phone, fixed-line, and wireline) is a telephone connection that uses metal wires or optical fiber telephone line for transmission, as distinguished from a mobile cellular network, which uses ...

cellular Cellular may refer to: *Cellular automaton, a model in discrete mathematics * Cell biology, the evaluation of cells work and more * ''Cellular'' (film), a 2004 movie *Cellular frequencies, assigned to networks operating in cellular RF bands *Cell ...

telephones. Local Area Signalling Services (LASS) and Custom Calling Feature Control Codes:

References

External links

ETSI Supplementary service codes
{{FS1037C Calling features North American Numbering Plan Telephone numbers in Canada de:Vermittlungstechnische Leistungsmerkmale (öffentliche Netze)

Feature definitions

North America & elsewhere

See also

References

External links