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A vertical service code (VSC) is a sequence of digits and the signals star (*) and pound/hash (#) dialed on a telephone keypad or rotary dial to access certain telephone service features. Some vertical service codes require dialing of a telephone number after the code sequence. On a touch tone 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 telephony, VSCs were developed by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T) 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 use of vertical is a somewhat dated reference to older switching methods and the fact that these services can only be accessed by a telephone subscriber, going up (vertically) inside the local central office instead of out (horizontally) to another telephone company.
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