This Month Feature Article:   

Calling to Mobile Phones Overseas is NOT Cheap.

Did you notice higher rates on calls to international cellular phones?  What are the reasons for this surcharge? 

Cellular call charges are different in USA and most foreign countries.  In USA a cellular phone user pays for both incoming and outgoing calls.  In many other countries the cellular phone user pays only for outgoing calls that he/she makes.  Incoming calls are paid by the caller (of course at higher cellular rate) and are free to the cellular phone owner.  Therefore if a person in USA makes an international call to a cellular phone in a foreign country, a foreign telephone company adds a cellular phone surcharge for the call and a US phone company passes this surcharge to US customers. It seems that the surcharge is justified.

It seems that the surcharge is justified.  What is not justified is the amount of this surcharge.  Some companies use it as a hidden source of additional revenue.

Let's run some examples for calls to Poland. AT&T users on the $2.95/month international plan pay 25c/min for calls to a land-line and 41c/min to a cellular phone. A 16c/min surcharge. MCI users on the $9.95/month intl. plan pay 28c/min to a land-line and 46c/min to a cellular phone. A 18c/min surcharge. On the other hand smaller telecom resellers charge much less.

How can a user know if a call is made to a land-line or a cellular phone? The good news is that international cellular phones have a special "area-code" number that identifies a mobile device.  The bad news is that most callers DO NOT KNOW these special "area-codes". For example if you make a call to Poland that starts with 48-501, 48-502, 48-503, 48-504, 48-505, 48-60, 48-692 or 48-90 you are calling a cellular phone and paying a higher rate! A list of cellular area codes for other international locations can be found  here.

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