- Alternate uses: 311 (band)
In the United States, 3-1-1 is a new non-emergency telephone number, meant to provide a quick, easy to remember, and universal alternative to 9-1-1. Its first use for this purpose was in Baltimore, Maryland, where the service commenced on October 2, 1996. 311 is intended to connect callers to a call center that can be the same as the 911 call center, but with 311 calls assigned a secondary priority, answered only when no emergency 911 calls are waiting. This system is intended to extend the system such that true emergency callers are answered quickly, without ringing or busy signals.
311 service is generally implemented at the local level, and in some cities it is also used for various municipal calls.
Examples of calls intended for 311:
- illegal burning
- suspicious persons
- debris in roadway
- minor injuries
- non-working streetlamps
- noise complaints
While implementation is still spotty, it has been assigned by the FCC for nationwide use, and it is likely that Canada and others in the NANP will adopt the standard as well. The CRTC has recently assigned this number as a municipal service. In Alberta, it is used as the ANAC number, except from a POTS line within Calgary, where 3-1-1 service is currently being implemented.
In former times, "311" was sometimes used as a fictitious area code in Bell System advertisements depicting telephones; often the phone in the advertisement would bear the specific number "Area Code 311 555-2368."
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