TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: MCI Now Charging Extra on Payphones When Using Phone Card!

Re: MCI Now Charging Extra on Payphones When Using Phone Card!

Danny Burstein (dannyb@panix.com)
Thu, 9 Jun 2005 05:13:25 +0000 (UTC)

In <telecom24.257.3@telecom-digest.org> hizark21@yahoo.com writes:

> MCI now charging extra payphones when using their phone
> card!!!

> MCI has started charging a 65 cent surcharge on calls using their phone
> cards ...

While this may be news to the earlier poster, a drop-fee of this
(rough amount) has been in place by most, if not all, cards for nearly
a decade.

The FCC has mandated a kickback to the owner/operator of payphones
whenever a non-coin workaround such as a call to a "toll free [a]"
number is placed. Last time I looked this was set at about a quarter
[b]. Throw in the usual overheads, as well as the fact that this is
almost invisible to the card user, and you get actual charges in the
fifty to seventy-five cent range. (or more...)

The rationale is that the payphone operator is entitled to some sort
of compensation for giving you a place to stand, make the call, and
have access to the phone network.

Incidentally, some phone cards have (or at least had ... it's been a
while since I've had occasion to check into this in detail) so-called
"local" regular, that is, normal pay rate access numbers.

In these cases you'd place the $0.25 or thereabouts into the coinbox
just like you would for a standard call, and there's no extra
surcharge from the card balance.

[a] in quotes because it's not really a free call. the recipient
(the "owner" of the number) pays for it. In fact, because of this
extra payphone kickback surcharge, many places with toll free
numbers do NOT take calls from coin phones.

[b] fcc info on ayphone kickbaks:
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/News_Releases/1999/nrcc9005.html

_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

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