Verizon Wireless, a longtime caller-pays proponent and the Chicago area's biggest carrier, has all but given up on it for the moment. The company made a splash by launching caller-pays plans years ago in seven states, but now only sells the service on request. For four months this summer, Verizon tried a more flexible version in Seattle, where customers could turn the caller-pays feature on and off and could exempt certain callers from the charges. But Verizon halted the test plan at the end of June, and the company has not said what plans, if any, it has to press ahead with caller-pays. The company scratched plans for a national rollout.
Consumers are obviously wary.
Marc Schuette counts himself among those resisting caller-pays. Schuette manages the communications and computer networks for Consolidated Supply Co., an Oregon-based plumbing and waterworks supplier. After noticing strange new charges on phone bills for the firm's Idaho branch, Schuette discovered the company was being billed for employee calls to clients who had caller-pays mobile phone plans. The rates were anywhere from about 22 to 30 cents per minute. No one is paying 25 cents a minute these days.