Yes, for many years 411 was the number you dialed on the telephone in North America to get "information," or as the phone company called it "directory assistance." "The 411" became a slang phrase to mean "information" (sometimes information in the form of a news flash).
Ex:
"I'm thinking of asking the boss for a raise. I've been with the company for a full year now, and I got a very good performance review."
"Dude, the 411 is that the company has been struggling lately and that they are going to start laying off employees. I don't think this is the best time to ask for more money."
When fax machines, beepers and cell phones became popular the telephone company found that it didn't have enough telephone numbers to assign. So they solved that problem by dividing up large metropolitan areas and giving each section a different area code. (For example, until the late 1980s the area code for all of Southeastern Michigan was 313. Today just the Metro Detroit area has eight different area codes. With so many telephone numbers to keep track of, Directory Assistance also had to be divided and portioned. So 411 no longer works as a general "information" number - usually you must dial area code + 555-1212 to locate a phone number.