Pay Phone Surcharge Lowered

February 12, 1999 8:55 AM, EST

Trucking companies that receive calls to their toll-free numbers from pay telephones got a slight reprieve when the pay phone surcharge was lowered by more than 4 cents to 24 cents per call.

The Federal Communications Commission announced Feb. 5 that it would lower the fee. The commission instituted a 28.4-cent fee in October 1997 to compensate owners of public telephone for all calls to toll-free numbers, such as 800 and 888 prefixes.

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