Toll Free Telephone Service [Telecom]

It just occurred to me that I might actually be able to use one of these services: my son uses calling cards to call home from school, but since he must use a pay phone, each call costs over a dollar.

Is there a surcharge on pay phone calls to 800 numbers no matter what number is dialed? Is it a fixed fee, or is it time/distance sensitive?

Bill

In addition to the normal per-minute charges, there is a fixed charge for each call from a pay phone. The pay-phone operator gets paid around 30 cents for each call to a toll-free number. The toll-free operator usually charges the number 'owner' a bunch more than that -- around 75 cents is not unusual, sometimes significantly higher -- to cover _their_ costs for doing the extra bookkeeping, and handling the payout. (undoubtedly there is a substantial profit built in as well. )

Yes, there is a surcharge and yes, it is a flat fee. No, it is not always (and perhaps not even often) paid to the pay phone owner, depending on who the owner is signed up with. Some carriers will collect the fee and credit the owner for the calls made on his phones. Many (most?) will not, for small operators. Twelve years ago we had 220+ payphones and the dial-around comp was significant. Today we have three, and I don't know if we receive dial-around comp or not. Doubt it. It's something close to seventy cents a call, but who has time to chase seventy cents?

-- The war on privilege will never end. Its next great campaign will be against the privileges of the underprivileged. H. L. Mencken

Do they pass ANI as CLID? That's a feature I used to have with a provider I believe was NetworkPlus. I don't think they're around anymore but I really loved the fact that you never got a privacy or unknown via the 800 service.

Nope, pay phones put it through as the called part pays the bill. No surcharges that I'm aware of at the moment.