Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 14, 1993 TAG: 9301140092
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: C7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
IF YOU CAN'T GET THROUGH, CALL FCC
The next time you make a long-distance call from a pay phone, try charging it through the long-distance company you use for home or business calls.If you can't get through, the Federal Communications Commission wants to know about it.
New rules requiring pay phones to provide access to any long-distance company went into effect this week.
"Consumers are going to be helping us know whether we are going to be taking action in particular cases," FCC enforcement attorney Kurt Schroeder said Tuesday.
The rules also affect institutions that charge for calls, such as hotels, motels and hospitals. But some have up to five years to comply.
The issue arose because consumers complained that long-distance calls from pay phones were showing up on their bills at excessively high rates from companies they'd never heard of.
That's because individual pay phone owners had exclusive contracts with long-distance providers, which in some cases were small, regional firms.
These companies, known as "alternate operator services," often charged twice to five times as much as AT&T, MCI and Sprint, said Ken McEldowney of Consumer Action, a San Francisco group that petitioned for the new FCC rules.
Every time a caller made an operator-assisted call from a pay phone, charges automatically went to the operator services company.
Consumers who thought they were getting access to their own long-distance company by using a local phone company card that billed their home phones were surprised by the charges from an alternate company.
Callers who tried to use credit cards from particular long-distance companies sometimes were unable to get through at all.
Consumers at pay phones are trapped, said McEldowney. "What are you going to do, get back in the car and find another phone?"
There are about 400 small long-distance companies and 244,000 independent pay phones in the United States.
Albert Kramer, attorney for the American Public Communications Council, which represents pay phone owners, said further action may still be needed to address problems not solved by the new rules.
Meanwhile, McEldowney and Schroeder had this advice: When placing a long-distance call from a pay phone, look to see which long-distance company serves it.
If it's not your long-distance company, use your company's access code to get into its system, usually a five-digit number that starts with 10. It also could be an 800 or 950 number.
If the long-distance company's name is not posted, dial 00 to get its identity from the operator. If it is your company, no access code is needed.
After dialing, listen for a recorded announcement to ensure that your company is carrying the call. If it's a company you don't want, hang up before the call is completed and you won't be charged.
Consumers should report access problems to the FCC by writing to: Informal Complaints Branch, Common Carrier Bureau, Room 6202, Federal Communications Commission, Washington, D.C. 20554.