As part of the Communications Act of 1996, Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved changes regarding the way pay telephone owners derive profit from the use of their equipment.

Because of the proliferation of toll-free numbers, calling cards and cell phones, pay telephone owners have seen the slow, but steady decline of cash customers. Owners received no income from calls using long distance company-provided calling cards or calls to toll-free numbers.

The pay telephone industry has been trying for years to find a way to make money from calling card and toll-free calls. The new rules allow owners to charge a fee per call, billed to the toll-free number or calling card account. In addition, most pay telephone owners have raised their cash prices to as much as 50¢ per call.

While we believe strongly in ‘The American Way’ and the right to make a profit, we believe that these new rates and fees are higher than necessary, and are certainly not in the best interest of our clients. In fact, many long distance companies have made the decision to raise their toll-free and calling card rates to compensate for the increased costs of administrating and billing the new fees.

As always, GLOBALnet has not, and will not, raise your rates. However, the FCC mandated that all long distance companies pass along these new fees.

"What does this mean for me?"

For all calls from a payphone billed to your calling card or toll-free number, you will see a separate charge of 55¢ per call, in addition to your normal long distance rates.  We have chosen to bill this fee separately from your normal rate so that you will see how this change affects your calling patterns, and how it affects your long distance bill’s bottom line.

We encourage you to contact your Members of Congress and the Federal Communications Commission to let them know how you feel about these new charges.