Verizon Charging for Local (Landline)Calls

[harry]

Hello,

Verizon wants to charge me, by the minute, for local, landline calls. Does anyone else have that problem?

[gfretwell]

I bet it is their way of getting you on FOIS. Once they roll that out they do everything they can to get everyone on it. Once you do, they will cut your POTS wire and pull it out.

[Higgs Boson]

? What is their justification? Is this a sudden change? Were you alerted by one of those enclosed small-type notices that nobody reads? What was your previous situation with them? How long did it last? Or did you just sign up with them for phone?

Interested, so please post details.

[DA]

It's possible, depending on the provider of your phone line and the called one as well as the geographical size / population of your area code. Also, what's "local" to some people may be IntraLATA (which may be local toll call) to the phone companies.

Without details such as whether it's all calls in the same area code (I kinda doubt it) or just to certain exchanges (first 6 digits) it's hard to grasp exactly what is the problem here.

Could also be that they've just "invented" another payment plan but this one looks like a bummer to me.

------------------------------------- /\_/\ ((@v@)) NIGHT ():::() OWL VV-VV

[Some Guy]

I'll tell ya something.

If my telco provider stopped charging me $25 a month for a pots land-line with unlimited local calling, but instead charged me zero dollars a month, but billed me a dime or even a quarter for every local call I made, I'd rather have that. My bill would probably drop to $10 or $15 a month.

[aemeijers]

No fiber available here. Even if there was, I'll never give up my copper. I like redundancy. My DSL is on a second dry pair, not the voice pair. I've had dial tone with no DSL, and DSL with no dial tone, but never both out at once. When the DSL is out, I still have dial-up available. When the dial-tone is out, I have the $8 a month cell phone in my briefcase. If dialtone and DSL are both out, I have to do without, or go to the office, or take the laptop to a public hotspot.

[GeorgeD]

I have Verizon FIOS and pay by call plan for telephone. That plan is cheapest since I make very few landland calls.

Look at your usage, it be in your best interest to change plans if you don?t use landland telephone much.

At one time the telephone company was required to examine their customer?s usage and recommend the lowest cost option. There may be nothing nefarious here.

[Kurt Ullman]

That is a long-standing option. When I was going to college in the mid-70s Indiana Bell at the time had the option which I considered because it was cheaper and I was making few local calls.

[keith]

Hell, I'd take that deal too. I had a POTS line for a little over a year without so much as a phone being plugged in to see if it worked. I'd still have the line if it didn't cost me anything. ;-)

[Bill]

I grew up without a cell phone and no one else had one either. Everybody seemed to get along just fine. (Hint!)

[George]

Sorry, ir seems to be a rule that details must always be omitted for some reason. That way it can develop into a 100 post thread of folks trying to guess the answers to questions like yours...

[Frank]

We have a situation with one son's cell phone, his only phone, that while he lives only 3 miles away, his number is for a down state exchange (same area code) that costs long distance.

[Higgs Boson]

I thought my questions were perfectly germane to a general question like yours. It gave almost no information, so naturally one seeks more.