Qwest: Per-minute charge on local payphone calls?

[Newsjock]

OK, folks, help me out here. I just got my new Qwest bill, and there's an insert:

A filing will be submitted to the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission on or about October 1, 2003, requesting that the following rates become effective, pending Commission approval, on November 1, 2003

... The existing minute of use rate for local long-distance calls placed from pay phones, businesses and aggregator phones in Washington will increase to $0.50.

In addition to the operator surcharge, Qwest is introducing an associated minute of use rate when local calls are placed from pay phones, businesses and aggregator phones in Washington. The new minute of use rate is $0.45 per minute.

I don't want to sound the panic button or anything, but the way I read this is that it will now cost $0.50 plus $0.45/min to place a local call from a payphone in Washington.

Someone tell me this isn't so. Because if it is so, it's one hell of a big story.

[Fescue4u]

1. No just local long distance..

Local long distance is when a call is long distance, but within the service area. (i.e. across town)

No doubt a per minute is already being charged and its being raised to 50 cents.

[Newsjock]

2. That was my first thought, but ...

... that's the $0.50 rate referenced in the earlier paragraph. They talk about this "new" rate for "local calls," not "local long-distance."

[Fescue4u]

3. Ooo wait..

I see what you are talking about now...

Ouch, that would damn expensive if its what it sounds like.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Carriers want to get rid of the pay phone.

They want you to have a cell phone in your pocket. In fact, they want everyone to have one in their pocket. It's a revenue stream they can count on in their projections. Cops, also, HATE pay phones, and that enters into things. Around here, cops love to get rid of pay phones, as do some of the citizenry.

Why?

Poor people use pay phones, almost exclusively, and everyone who is anyone knows the poor are all criminals.</sarcasm based upon what I have heard from people>

[depakid]

5. That's Qwest for you-

arguably THE worst telephone company ever to exist- Washington and Oregon have been battling them (to little avail) for years over things like this. Unfortunately, it looks to me like the Washington UTC punted this time. It seems they're calling it "price flexibility."

When I lived in a Qwest "service" area, I swear not a single freakin' month went by when phony charges or "mystery calls" didn't appear on my bill. They were eventually busted over one of these illegal charges, and had to pay some meager fine that didn't even cover all of their misbegotten profits.