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24/7 service
Available 24 hours a day, seven days a week From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In commerce and industry, 24/7 or 24-7 service (usually pronounced "twenty-four seven") is service that is available at any time and usually, every day.[1] An alternate orthography for the numerical part includes 24×7 (usually pronounced "twenty-four by seven"). The numerals stand for "24 hours a day, 7 days a week". Less commonly used, 24/7/52 (adding "52 weeks") and 24/7/365 service (adding "365 days") make it clear that service is available every day of the year.
Synonyms include around-the-clock service (with/without hyphens) and all day every day, especially in British English,[2][3] and nonstop service, but the latter can also refer to other things, such as public transport services which go between two stations without stopping.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines the term as "twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; constantly". It lists its first reference to 24/7 to be from a 1983 story in the US magazine Sports Illustrated in which Louisiana State University basketball player Jerry Reynolds describes his jump shot in just such a way: 24–7–365.
24/7 service is employed in many settings including commercial businesses, emergency services, transport, utilities, certain industrial processes, and some human services.
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Commercial business
24/7 service might be offered by a supermarket, convenience store, ATM, automated online assistant, filling station, restaurant, concierge services or a staffed datacenter, or a staffing company that specializes in providing nurses since often nurses cover shifts 24/7 at hospital which are open 24/7. 24/7 services may also include taxicabs, security services, and in densely populated urban areas, construction crews.
Emergency services and transport
Public 24/7 services often include those provided by emergency medical providers, police, fire and emergency telephone numbers, such as 9-1-1 in North America.
Transport services like airports, airlines, and ferry services, and in some cases trains and buses, may provide 24-hour service. Examples of public transport services operating 24/7 include the New York City Subway, Staten Island Railway, PATH, PATCO, the Copenhagen Metro, and the Red Line and Blue Line of the Chicago "L". Many networks run a reduced night service schedule.
Industrial and utility services
Industrial and manufacturing facilities—especially those that operate near or at capacity, or which depend upon processes (such as production lines) that are costly to suspend—often provide 24/7 services. Similarly, utilities generally must provide multiple 24/7 services. For instance, an electricity provider will handle outage reports 24/7 and dispatch emergency repair technicians 24/7, in addition to monitoring electrical infrastructure and producing electricity at all times. The same applies to telecommunications and internet service providers.
Nonprofit and charity services
Many crisis centers and crisis hotlines provide 24/7 services.
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Continuous operations
Many 24/7 services operate continuously at all times with complete shift staff.
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