IP: Just say goodbye to 800 # calling from payphones!

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

From: "Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () radiomail net>
To: <farber () cis upenn edu>


The FCC has ordered the RECIPIENT of an 800 # call to compensate a payphone
owner 35 cents for calls.  


This all came about in a recently issued FCC order on reconsideration #
96-439, that among other things addressed the compensation to payphone
providers for 800 # calls.  In essence, the terms of 96-439 were oroginally
spelled out in FCC order 96-388 issued in September that stated an
interexchange carrier that carries the 800 # call MUST pay the payphone owner
35 cents as compensation.


You would think that if you use a payphone to make a call, you pay for it,
right? However, what the FCC ordered was that compensation for the use of a
payphone come from the RECIPIENT of the call, not the originator.


Next Oct, payphones will be required to send a special network identifier on
each call, and of course, the first thing 800 # service provider is going to
do is block payphone originated calls.


So forget about the days when you could run to a payphone and send a
1-800-SKY-PAGE,  check your voicemail, etc.


One would have thought it would be been rather straight forward to ask a
caller to drop a coin in to make an 800 # call, but that's not the way it
worked out.


--Geoff


P.S.  Also in the order was the deregulation of payphone local calls, read:
expect rates to go up!