AP story on "reverse billing" / wireless "number portability" etc.
October 18, 2002
Calling Cell Phones Could Cost More
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:43 p.m. ET
NEW YORK (AP) -- Here's another reason to check your
telephone bill closely.
A subtle realignment this fall in the nation's inscrutable
tangle of phone systems could cause a surprising increase
in what some consumers pay to call cell phones from
traditional landlines.
The change, rooted in the different ways landline and
wireless phone networks are laid out, means some calls to
cell phones that were once considered local now incur
higher toll charges.
For most people, the increases will be negligible. Verizon
Inc., the largest regional phone company, estimates that in
the 33 million households it serves, the average bill will
rise pennies per month.
Even so, Verizon warned customers about the new policy in
an insert with September phone bills and acknowledged that
some people's monthly charges could jump $10 or $20 unless
they change their calling habits.
``This change may come as a shock to many wireline
customers the first time they see it on their bills, and
could cause callers to hesitate next time they reach for
the phone and want to dial a wireless number,'' said Travis
Larson, spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications and
Internet Association, a trade organization for wireless
carriers.
The billing change doesn't appear to have caused serious
trouble where it already has been in effect, mainly in the
West and Midwest.
``I'm not aware that this is an issue that we get a lot of
consumer complaints on,'' said Federal Communications
Commission spokeswoman Meribeth McCarrick.
Why is this happening?
Area codes are divided into ``rate
centers'' with their own number prefixes. Calls to nearby
rate centers are considered local, while those to further
rate centers generate intra-state or regional toll prices.
Calls between more spread-out points count as
long-distance.
Because of differences in how wireless networks are set up,
wireless carriers don't need to get phone numbers in every
local rate center. So your cell phone could have a number
from a rate center distant from your home.
For such customers, a call from home to their cell phone
could incur per-minute toll charges.
To stimulate use of mobile phones, wireless carriers years
ago got landline companies to treat such calls as local.
Wireless carriers reimbursed landline companies for the
lost toll revenue -- a process known as reverse billing or
wide-area calling.
Reverse billing has diminished over time, largely because
wireless companies acquired numbers in more rate centers as
their customer base exploded.
For example, in New York state, fewer than 6 percent of
wireless phone exchanges still employ reverse billing, said
Michael O'Connor, a director of federal regulatory issues
at Verizon.
Similarly, Sprint PCS estimates that wireless billing
covers fewer than 5 percent of its customers, said Jack
Weyforth, manager of carrier interconnection. AT&T Wireless
spokeswoman Rochelle Cohen said ``a very small percentage
of our customers have these sorts of phone numbers.''
On Nov. 24, reverse billing will begin to die altogether.
The FCC is changing how phone numbers are allocated to
different providers and in many cases reverse-billing
systems aren't sophisticated enough to deal with that
switch.
The final blow to reverse-billing should come next year as
consumers get ``number portability,'' the right to keep
their mobile numbers if they switch carriers.
Michael Altschul, general counsel for the cell-phone
industry group, said local phone companies asked regulators
in several states to let them kill reverse billing.
That forced wireless companies to establish their own
connections in local rate centers by leasing costly
equipment and space from landline companies, he said.
``We're disappointed with the (local phone companies) that
they're discontinuing this service, because it was meeting
the needs of customers,'' added Diane Rainey, a spokeswoman
for wireless carrier Nextel Corp.
Sam Simon, chairman of the Telecommunications Research &
Action Center, a consumer rights group, said complexities
of the phone system make it unclear how widespread the new
charges will be.
No phone company would give details on where people could
be affected.
All nine states where BellSouth Corp. is the local phone
provider got rid of the old billing system by Oct. 1,
spokesman Jeff Battcher said.
In the 14 states served by Qwest Communications
International Inc., the change is scheduled to take effect
in November, though Qwest is working on ways to extend the
old system wherever possible, spokeswoman Carey Brandt
said.
Many SBC Communications Inc. customers experienced the
change several years ago. People in Texas, Oklahoma,
Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas will begin to see it this
fall, SBC spokesman Kevin Belgrade said.
^------
On the Net:
Wireless industry association:
wow-com.com
Local phone companies' organization:
usta.org
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company. |
