Story Created:
Nov 30, 2009 at 1:59 PM EDT
Story Updated:
Nov 30, 2009 at 1:59 PM EDT
LOS ANGELES (AP) - In the age of cellular communications a Los Angeles hairstylist would not expect that a collect call from a customer could be more than $45. Surprisingly high rates for collect calls are now the norm when cell phones are so common and collect calls are so rare.
84-year-old client Pat Devine used the pay phone because her mobile phone had just died. Barbara James, the hairstylist, gladly accepted the call from one of her clients.
Network Communications International charged $37 for the short duration phone call. Additional charges included: $5 in regulatory fees and taxes, and about $3 for a "billing cost recovery fee."
NCIC president Bill Pope declared that since collect calls are such a tiny use of phone services that costs would inevitably increase.
FCC spokeswoman Rosemary Kimball advises that since major companies have left the business of collect calls that fees and services are largely unregulated.
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