What Does Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS) Mean?
Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS) is a specialized form of long-distance service incorporating fixed toll rates offering dial-type telephony service between the service user, usually a business of some sort, and its customers in a given geographical area. It is basically a toll-free telephone service for a business that people can call without incurring any charges, as this is forwarded to the owner of the toll-free number.
Techopedia Explains Wide Area Telephone Service (WATS)
Wide Area Telephone Service was introduced in 1961 by Bell Systems as a long-distance flat-rate plan in which businesses could obtain a dedicated line with an included number of hours of call time from specific long-distance areas, and became the basis for the toll-free 1-800 numbers still in use today. A business could set up a WATS service to specific areas and ensure that customers calling from that area would not incur long-distance charges, ensuring customer loyalty as well as gaining new customers since people are more likely to call toll-free numbers than to pay long-distance charges.
